Sunday, January 24, 2010

Don’t Rock the Boat!

finished-sailboat I wanted to show you what’s been keeping me busy this last week or so. It’s a cake I was commissioned to make for the 90th birthday party of a man who made and sailed boats. I was given the specs for the boat, and the sails were made by the daughter of the celebrant. Let me tell you, this is a BIG boat: 20” from stem to stern! The sails are about 30” tall.

Some details: The boat itself is molded of rice krispie treats, but made using only half the butter so it would dry harder. And boy, did it dry hard! I had to use a drill to make the hole for the mast to make sure it didn’t completely shatter by trying to force it through. It’s covered in fondant, and I painted the deck to look like wood. The buoys (which show the 3 names he is known by) and life preserver are also made of fondant.

The cake is a deliciously moist yellow butter cake with lemon filling. I coated it in blue-tinted buttercream, and then in blue-tinted piping gel.

Every time I make one of these novelty cakes I learn a new lesson. This time the lesson was that piping gel WILL soften the fondant and make the colors bleed from anything that is touching it. The underside of the hull looked like a bloody mess, and the buoys look like they were melting into the water!

Anyway, I heard the cake was a big hit, and I’m glad to have had a part in the celebration – 90 years is certainly something to be proud of!
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5 comments:

Cathleen said...

Wow! Wow! This is really cool!

whoistracy said...

Oh my gosh this is AMAZING!!!!!

i {heart} papers said...

You did an amazing job - thank you!!! And boy was it yummy!

Jeff LaSala said...

As someone who both attended the party this was for and ate some of the cake itself, I can say with absolute validity that you did an excellent job on this, Carolyn! And I can also verify that the Rice Krispie boat was awesome and insanely dense. That stuff could have qualified as one of the weapons in the game Clue.

"I know who did it! The killer was was Professor Plum, in the library, with the Rice Krispie boat."

Yet I still wanted to chomp on it. :)

Jannie aka Chickengirl said...

wow! Another awesome cake!