This cake featured an all-sugar shoe. I had practiced a shoe for my sister-in-law’s birthday and it turned out okay. I say okay because the strap broke – it was also a sling back pump. I made the heel by hand as I did this one. I sincerely wish I had invested in a silicone mould for the heel.

The sole and heel are made in pastillage. This is similar to gum paste but has a high quantity of tylose (CMC) and icing sugar. It is very easy to make but working with it is scary. It must remained covered at all times.

As you can see I turned my dining room table into a shoe-maker’s atelier.

The strap also broke on this one but I managed to fix it with some gum glue (basically tylose and water).

I purchased a pair of Hayvens (hey, any excuse is good). They are quite comfy and were a necessity in recreating the shoe as exactly as possible.

As it turns out, Confectioner’s Glaze is the perfect product to make gum paste look like patent leather.

The cake itself was vanilla chiffon filled with dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and strawberry mousse. I decorated the top rather quickly as we had an incident in Matt’s room that ended in the emergency room. What a day that was.

The top was painted with gold and silver and dusted with a petal pink.

I posted a photo to Instagram with the #stevemadden hashtag, let’s see if they get it!