The Big One - Fish and Bobber Cake

A cake celebrating Archer's first birthday was requested for August 29.  If you are from Southeast Louisiana that day sends shivers down your spine because it is the day that Hurricanes Katrina (2005) struck the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. To compound the fear of that day, several other hurricanes were dancing around the gulf on that date: Gustav (2008), Isaac (2012), and Harvey (2017).  And now on August 29, 2021 we are watching Hurricane Ida racing toward the Louisiana coast.  Sadly the birthday party had to be canceled, and even sadder, I had already finished the cake. 

For this cake I decided to make the decorations out of cookies.  "The Big One" sign, the bobbers, and the big fish are all sugar cookies.  I've started using cookies as toppers because, well, you can actually eat them.  Fondant and gum paste topper are technically edible, but 99.9% of the time they are just tossed in the trash.   It is heartbreaking to see all that hard work just thrown in the garbage. Sniff.

<< Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to ear fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.>>

So now I make the toppers out of cookies (when I can).  For the sign I covered the cookie in chocolate flavored fondant, and I used a wood grain impression mat to give it the look of wood.

I just used a straight edge to make the lines for the planks.

And I used powdered food color in white, black, and blue to give the "wood" a weathered look. 

For the lettering I used the FMM Art Deco Alphabet 2cm Upper Case set and the Funky 4cm Upper Case set.  For the little bobber I used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to make the gum paste cutter.   In fact, I used my 3D printer to make cookie cutters for the sign, the bobber, and the fish. (If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE. )  

For the cake itself I used a technique where you pipe a blob of icing on the cake and smear the blob out into a tail using a spatula.  The technique is called blobs, petals, scallops, or scales depending on who you ask.  And I have to admit I have a hard time keeping lines of frosting straight, so I added some guide lines on the crumb coat of frosting to help with my "problem".  I used a Wilton icing comb to scrape the lines into the frosting. 

After crumb coating the cake in light sky blue, I made five additional shades of sky blue frosting.  I only had 3 of the "1A" tips, so I just use tipless piping bags for the other 3 colors.  And surprisingly the tipless bags worked just as well as the metal tips.  

Once all the colors were ready, it was just a matter of placing the blobs of frosting and dragging out the tail.   And see how the guild lines kept everything straight and even!

The technique was really easy, the only confusing part was how to finish off the last row.  It was hard trying to tuck the tail of the last blob under the first blob.  It looks a little messy, but this was the back of the cake so no one would notice.

After the cake was frosted, it was just a matter of sticking my premade cookies on top.  I made the little fish on the string with my Cricut Air Explorer. 

But sadly no one but me actually got to see the cake.  I took everything apart, boxed up the cake, and stuck it in the freezer.  (It will be eaten at our Labor Day party next week).  Archer's party has been rescheduled for September, so I will have to make the whole thing again.  Oh well, such is the life of a cake decorator in the hurricane zone.

Happy Decorating,

Carol