CAKEAPOTAMUS

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Not a cake.

My husband's birthday is tomorrow. I asked him this morning what kind of cake he wanted.

"I don't want a cake".

Challenge accepted.

I made his these:

Those little two are just chocolate covered Oreos.

This is what they look like inside:

Heath, Reese's cup, Double Stuf Oreos, and chocolate. These are many things, but they are NOT a cake.

But I'm still making a cake later.


Friday, March 1, 2013

Hey, Madison!

Hey, Madison! I hear you like finding out how things are built. So, here are some pictures of how your birthday cake was made:

I always start with making the icing. While it's beating I get everything else together.

action shot
 OK. This cake stand was custom made just for your cake. We built it so that the board was set up at around a 40 degree angle.


I thought that, if it stood up more, the cake would slide off during the long drive to deliver the cake.  At this angle, the cake should survive the trip.

This wood was scrubbed three times before any food product touched it. 

The cake is just a regulation yellow cake. I baked it in a 9 x 13 cake pan.


I prepped the board by putting a thin layer of icing on it.


Then I leveled the cake to make it flat:

 See? All flat:

Then I cut it into two smaller rectangles
I love this huge cake carving knife.

After that first, thin layer of icing was dry on the cake board, I put on a thick layer of icing. I made sure the icing was bumpy so that the cake would stick to it more easily:


Boom! The first piece of cake is on the board!


OK, see how it's not flat on the base of the board? I need to bevel the bottom piece of cake so that it'll fit in there snugly.

Beveling:

There's another fluffy layer of icing underneath this bottom piece of cake, too. But here's the bottom cake on the board. Meanwhile, the icing was still beating in the mixer.


OK, so now I need to think about the screens. I looked at pictures of DS's to figure it out.
I cut small rectangles out of white sugar paper and assembled my food coloring pens.


These look like a good size:

I looked at a sample of Mario fonts to write on the rectangle screens:

Get it? Level 9? Because it's your 9th birthday?

Meanwhile, it was time to add some color to the icing:


I had some black icing left from the cake I made earlier in the evening:

And add the purple icing:


Stick on the screens I made earlier and use icing to make buttons on the bottom cake:


It's coming together!

OK. Time to stick this little Mario through the top screen so that he looks like he's jumping out of the cake:


I added some pretty blue icing to make the board look prettier:
And there it is. Your cake.

I hope you like it. And I really hope it survives the delivery in the morning!