Harry Potter Baby Shower Cake & Cookie - Welcome Muggle Baby

I learned a new term recently: A Sprinkle.  It is like a baby shower only smaller and usually for a second child.  Who knew.  This is a Harry Potter cake I made for the Sprinkle - Welcome Muggle Baby!

I made some cookies too.  I suck at cookie decorating.  I use glaze instead of royal icing so I always blame the thin, watery glaze for my sloppy technique.

And like all of my recent cakes I went a little overboard using my 3D printer to make cutters and embossers.  I could have cut a lot of these things by hand (like the envelope and shield), but making the cutters is a lot more fun.  You can read my post on using a 3D printer to make cookie cutters HERE.

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Here is the shield going together.  I made a cutter that created the outer edge, and used that same cutter to make the sections in red, green, yellow and blue fondant.  I had an embosser for each of the animals, and an "H" embosser for the center of the shield.  After everything was  dry, I painted the edge with silver food paint, and dusted everything with brown and black food color power.

The wizard wand I made from a bamboo skewer wrapped in fondant hardened with Tylose/Gum-Tex power.  After it dried I painted it with brown food color and dusted it with more brown and black power.

For the book I started with a rectangle of thick brown fondant (mixed with lots of Tylose), and then made super thin "pages" out of gum paste.   

On the top page of the book I printed a newspaper looking image and the words "Welcome Muggle Baby" on some wafer paper.  Then I dampened the wafer paper and stuck it to the dry gum paste.

For the envelope I used my cutter which placed score lines where the flaps needed to be folded.  

Once the folded envelope was dry I dusted it to give it the aged look.  I don't show it here but for the red "wax" seal on the envelope I just stuck a wad of red fondant to the envelope and pressed and "H" embosser into it.

The sorting hat was by far the hardest part to make.  I started with a cone shaped wad of aluminum foil and added fondant to form the protrusion in the face.

I then rolled out a piece of thin fondant and wrapped it around the entire piece.  I added bits of fondant here and there, trying to match the features on the hat from the movie.  My fondant started to dry very quickly (too much Tylose I guess), so it started to looks cracked and wrinkled.  Good thing that was the look I was going for.

Next I added the brim.  Later I thought the brim looked too narrow, so I made another and stacked it on top of the original brim.

Final step was a dusting of (you guessed it) black and brown food color power.  I put lots of black dust in the eye sockets and mouth.  You can also see the hat has a larger brim in this picture.  If you look really hard you can see where the top wider brim is folding over the narrow brim underneath. 

For the golden snitch I made some cutters for the wings, and I used a plastic baseball mold for the ball of the snitch.   I used an extruder to make the thin ropes of fondant and then glued them to the ball to approximate the pattern on the snitch.  

I let everything dry in the shape I wanted.

And then I painted everything with gold luster dust mixed with Everclean.  Once the gold was dry I dusted with black and brown food color power to give it an aged look.

Putting the cake together was really easy because 90% of it was made before hand.  After frosting the cake (American Buttercream tinted with Ivory food gel), I rolled out yellow and red fondant, pressed a knit-looking impression matt into the fondant, and then cut strips using a 5 roller pastry cutter. 

Then it was just a matter of placing the strips on the cake in an alternating red and yellow pattern.

Once the strips were in place (and dusted with brown and black), I simply placed all the items I had made earlier onto their assigned locations.  To get the splatter look on the buttercream, I thinned down some buttercream with milk, and then using a wadded up piece of plastic wrap I dabbed the thinned buttercream onto the cake.  The technique gives a nice stippled pattern.  

So here is the finished cake, what do you think?  Happy Sprinkle, Muggle Baby.  My the force be with you.  (oops that's a different movie, right??)

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Super Easy Border Collie Cake

Someone asked for a Border Collie cake, but not something carved; they wanted something super simple.  This is what I gave them.  And it couldn't have been simpler to make - I mean like 45 minutes simple.

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I found a super cute graphic image of a border collie, and I cut the printout apart like a jigsaw puzzle.  Then I just cut pieces of black and white covering chocolate to match the paper pieces. (Note: the covering chocolate is stiffer and holds it shape better than fondant.  It taste better too.)

Then I stacked all the pieces and glued them together with a touch of water.

The eyes went on last, and I scored a few lines in the covering chocolate to represent hair.

And then I just picked the whole thing up and placed it on top of my prepared cake.  What could be easier???  Honestly, It took be about 45 minutes to cut and stack all the pieces.  I wish they were all this effortless.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Easy(ish) SpongeBob Square Pants Cake

I made this SpongeBob Square Pants cake for my niece who brought it to a friend at work.  It looks a little complicated to make, but it was actually pretty easy.

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I started by trimming the cake to fit the shape of SpongeBob's body.  Just straight cuts here.   I use a huge 11" serrated knife to cut and trim my cakes.  I have the Farberware Resin brand - I love this knife!  Amazon isn't selling it any more, but this Mercer brand looks comparable. 

I stacked two layers, and then cover with chocolate ganache.

I let it chill in the refrigerator till everything was nice and firm.  While the cake was chilling, I used the paper template to cut out the mouth and tie.  I also made the arms, legs, and shoes, but when I started to place them on the cake I found that they were too small.  (It doesn't pay to make too many things ahead of time.)

Next I used a circle cutter to cut the depression into the cake - this is what makes SpongeBob look like a sponge.  To make his pants, I covered the bottom section in brown fondant, and I used a strip of white fondant for his shirt.  I made the white strip a little too thick, but I didn't realize this mistake till later.  I thought SpongeBob's yellow body would sit directly against the white strip, but I realized later that the yellow needed to overlap the white stip.  Oh well...

Next I added two yellow balls of fondant to make his cheeks.  Those lines in the cheeks will butt up against the mouth which will be placed later. 

Next I covered his upper body in yellow fondant, pushing the fondant into the depressions that I dug out with the circle cutter.   And do you see that big crease where the yellow fondant covers the white?  If I had made the white strip a little thinner, the crease wouldn't show as much.

Next I added his face.  I used circle cutters for his eyes, and the paper templet to cut out the mouth.

And that little black strip along his pants - I used this PME strip cutter to make those.  I also used the strip cutter to make the details on his socks.

And speaking of socks, here are his legs ready to go on the cake.  Nothing too fancy

For the bubbles on the cake board, I used a circle cutter set to cut an outer circle and and inner circle giving me a narrow, hollow circle.

The cutouts for "Happy Birthday" and "Lauren" were made using my Cricut cutter (this is a must have tool for cake decorating).  His eyelashes were made with the strip cutter, and the tiny dots on his checks were made with some teeny, tiny circle cutters.  

Well that is it for SpongeBob; one day I hope I can make a Patrick cake!

Happy Decorating,

Carol