Crown Royal Apple Pillow Cake

I made this Crown Royal Pillow Cake for the groom's cake at my cousin's sister-in-law's wedding.  She wanted the pillow to be green instead of the normal purple because the groom loves the Apple flavored Crown Royal.

The only thing difficult about this cake was the crown.  I found a paper template on Red Ted Art that resembled the Crown Royal crown and used that as a starting point.  

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I cut out the head band section from gum paste and propped it on a canister to dry.

Next I made the red section that goes inside the crown.  I covered a foam half ball in some red fondant.  I also set the half ball on a circular piece of Styrofoam to give it additional height.

For the flaps/feathers/petals (not sure what they are called) that stretch from head band to the top of the red ball, I cut each one individually and glued one end to the head band and one end to the top of the red ball.  I molded some aluminium foil to match the arc that I needed in the flaps and placed it under the flap while the gum paste dried. (Note: for the "glue" is mix gum paste with water till it forms a glue-like paste.)

For the top part of the crown I covered a little foam ball with gum paste and stuck it on the top.  Once everything was dry, I painted the crown with Roxy & Rich edible gold luster dust.

I made some gems from red and green colored Isomalt and a gem shaped candy mold.  I glued them to the crown using melted white chocolate.

The cake itself was red velvet which I carved in a rough pillow shape.  I really couldn't carve too much detail into the cake because my red velvet cake is so soft and crumbly.  The cake was filled and crumb-coated in cream cheese frosting, covered in white chocolate ganache, and then covered in green-tinted fondant.

For the trim on the cake I used Satin Ice Gold Shimmer fondant and my trusty Food Safe Extruder.  The extruder has special "disks" that let me form the rope shape.  I used two different sizes of rope and the "string" shaped disk to make the strings of the tassel.  For the circular shaped piece I used a Wooden Stamp Set to push the pattern into the fondant, and then I used a metal piping tip to cut out the shape.  I cut the Crown Royal words out of the same Shimmer fondant using a paper template.  As a final step I painted the Shimmer fondant with some edible gold lust dust to give it a little more shine. 

So here is the finished cake.  I hope the bride and groom like it, and I hope the kids at the party enjoy the strawberry and apple flavored gems.  For some reason the kids in my family always try to EAT the toppers.  I tell them that gum paste taste gross, but they want to try it for themselves.  Strange creatures.

Happy Decorating,

Carol


Supply List: 

Wilton Gum Paste
Foam Half Ball 4.5"
Fondarific Red Fondant
Multipack Foam Ball
Roxy & Rich Edible Gold Luster Dust
Isomalt
Candy Mold
Satin Ice Gold Shimmer
Food Safe Extruder
Wooden Stamp Set

Messy Teenager Bed Cake

My next door neighbor asked for a Messy Bedroom cake for her daughter.  LOL.  I can relate to Raelynn's messy, borderline hoarder personality.

This cake started with the bed.  This is a photo of Raelynn's real bedroom - after her mom made her clean it up.  I wanted to make the cake resemble her room so she would recognize it.

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First I made the headboard and foot board of the bed out of gum paste.  I used a PME #3 strip cutter to make all the molding strips the same width.

After making the bed's two sideboards, I propped all four pieces up with a piece of Styrofoam and then glued everything together. To make the glue I mix gum paste with some water and smash and stir it together to make a thick paste.  It dries just as hard and strong as the original gum paste.

I covered another pieces of Styrofoam with pink fondant and used this as the sheet covered mattress.  I could have used cake or rice crispy treats for the mattress and box spring sections, but I wanted Raelynn to be able to keep the bed.

I used a face mold for the head and face and fashioned a stick figure body.  I didn't put any effort into the body because I knew it would be covered with a fondant blanket.  For the pattern on the blanket I used wooden ink stamps.  And that thing poking up at waist level is her arm and hand.  I didn't like how it looked so I later covered it with a book.

I made some hair from thin strings of fondant...

And then stuck the hair onto the gum paste head.

I had planned on covering the cake with wood-like flooring, but I was running short on time so I just made a big rug.  I used an impression mat to put a pattern/texture on the fondant rug, and I used some cheap-o crimping tools to give the edge of the rug a finished look.

Next I made the cloths - lots and lots of cloths.  I used images of paper doll clothing as templates and cut my fondant clothing to match.  I also made some hats, shoes, a backpack, a hairdryer, a Starbucks cup, some electronics (a teenage girl must have a phone), and some books.

For the letter on the cake I used FMM alphabet Tappits.  I used the block letter set and the funky  letter set.

And guess what?  Raelynn did recognize it as her room.  She kept screaming, "That's my room."


Happy Decorating,

Carol


Supply List: 

Satin Ice Gum Paste
Face Mold
PME #3 Strip Cutter
Wooden Stamp Set
Crimping Tools
FMM Uppercase Funky Alphabet

Toy Story Cake - Buzz and Woody

Buzz and Woody seem to be a favorite with my young great-nephews this year.  I was asked to make two within just a few weeks.

This was the first cake....

and this was the second one...

And cookies too...

And now a third cake - my family sure does love Toy Story....

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Construction of the cake started with Buzz's wings and Woody's star and buckle.  I made them ahead of time using a combination gum paste and fondant mixed with Tylose Powder.

The cake itself started with the cake drum that I covered in strips of fondant made to look like planks of wood.  I used (leftover) shades of brown, black, and yellow to give it a multi-toned look.  I rolled out the marbled fondant, impressed it with a wood-grained mat, and then cut it into strips.

I then placed the strips onto my drum.  I don't like to waste fondant, so I didn't decorate the section that would be covered by the cake.  The round piece of parchment paper under the fondant shows where my cake will be place so I know where to place my strips of fondant.

I pushed the round tip of a paint brush into the fondant to simulate nail heads, and as a final step I dusted the "nail heads" and the edges of the strips with black powder food color to give them a weathered look.

Now onto the cake.  For this cake my first tier would be Woody.  I covered the front section with some yellow colored fondant.  In hindsight the yellow section was much bigger than it needed to be.  With the yellow in place I made some thin red strings using Red Fondarific and my trusty fondant extruder, and then I stuck the red strings to the yellow base using a tiny bit of water.

See all the yellow and red - I covered way too much of the cake with the yellow but I didn't realize that until later.   After the shirt was in place I added a strip of blue for the pants and a strip of brown for the belt.  I put a little texture on the belt using a texture mat, and punched a few holes to mimic the holes in a belt.  I also added a little bit of "stitching" on the pants using a stitching tool.  I was just trying to make it look realistic.

Next I glued on the gum paste belt buckle so I would have a reference when I positioned Woody's vest.

But before I put on the vest, I placed the top tier on the cake and added a ribbon of purple fondant along the seam between the two cakes.  The fondant ribbon was made with my trusty fondant extruder and some Purple Choco-Pan Covering Chocolate.  After the top tier was in place, I rolled out some white fondant and draped it over the yellow to represent Woody's vest.  But see how far apart I had the two ends of the vest?  After I had EVERYTHING in place I realized the ends needed to be closer together.  Stupid, STUPID, me!  I had to take the completed vest off and start again.  I also realized that the red strings where showing through the white, so I removed most of the string before I put the white fondant back on.

I made the black and white trim of the vest by extruding thick strings of fondant and then twisting them together.

Here is the twisted trim going on.  See how far apart the two ends of the vest are?  When I tried to position Woody's star I realized I had a problem.

Here is the vest after the fix.  I put the ends closer together, trimmed the edge of the vest with the rope of twisted black & white fondant, and added random black cow spots.

The top tier was going to represent Buzz and I used some simple cutout of electric green colored fondant, some circles of red, green and blue, and some images I printed on wafer paper and then glued to thin pieces of gum paste.  I put my wafer paper images on gum paste to stop the images from running and smearing due to moisture from the buttercream.

The final step for the Buzz tier was to added those blue, green and red buttons, and to some purple accents.

Buzz's wings and Woody's star were the last elements to attach to the cake.   At this point the cake was finished, but the top of the cake looked a little plain so I made a simple topper using my Cricut Explorer.  I also added a red ribbon around the cake drum for the final touch.

On the other cake I made Buzz the bottom tier and Woody the top tier.  Everything was pretty much the same construction-wise, with the only major difference being the decorations on the cake drum.  The name Leland and the clouds were cut out my hand, and I used some discontinued Wilton letter cutters for the "Birthday".

So I think they turned out well.  My grand-nephews and their moms seemed very happy with their cakes.

Happy Decorating,

Carol



Supply List: 

Cake Drum
Gum Paste
Fondant
Tylose Powder
Wood Grain Impression Mat
Wilton Ribbon/Strip Cutter
Black Powder Food Color
Wilton's Buttercup Yellow Gel Color
Americolor Electric Green Gel Color
Choco Pan Purple Covering Chocolate
Choco Pan Bright White Covering Chocolate
Fondarific Black Fondant
Fondarific Red Fondant
Food Safe Extruder
Cricut Explorer 2