Bloody, Oozing Zombie Head Cake - So Gross

How gross is this!!!  It is a Zombie Head Cake with bloody, oozing brains, a dangling eyeball, chomping teeth, and a swollen protruding tongue.  I think this is the most hideous cake I have every made.  And 5 year old Jaxx LOVED IT.  Happy Birthday, Jaxx!

Here is a view of the brains...

Yuck!!  The main focus of this cake was the zombie head, and because I'm not a very good sculptor, I made the head using a mold. 

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The Walking Dead Zombie mold  is described as a gelatin mold, but it worked fine with fondant.  I tinted some Wilton white fondant with some Juniper Green food gel.   I mixed the fondant with LOTS of Tylose Powder/Gum-Tex Powder so the fondant would harden into a rock hard mask.  I also dusted the mold with corn starch to make sure the fondant wouldn't stick to the plastic. 

Once everything was dusted in corn starch, I firmly pressed the wad of fondant into the mold.  I used my thumb and fingers to make sure the fondant was pressed deeply into all the indentation.  Then after two days of drying time, I popped the fondant mask out of the mold.  This is what I got - Yikes!

I didn't think the eyes of the mask were big and icky enough, so I added white, blue and black fondant to make a huge eyes. The second eye was going to be dangling from the face so I didn't add an eye there.  I also added bigger white teeth on top of the teeth of the mold.  I wanted those pearly-whites BIG.

For the cake itself, I frosted it in a brownish American Buttercream, and then for the lumpy texture I dabbed on super soft frosting with a wadded up piece of plastic wrap.  On top of the cake you can see an acrylic disk covered in Glad Press N' Seal.  I use these Cake Safe disks to get the sides of my cake super straight and the top flat.  You can read more about it HERE.

To help support the open cavity of the zombie's brain (and to help secure the head to the cake) I used a 5" half sphere cake under the head. 

Here is the zombie head attached to the cake.  I added some more green fondant to the lower portion of the skull.  The open portion will be covered with the brains.  You can also see that I attached the second eye.  I made the eyeball out of gum paste and attached it to a wire.  Once the eyeball was dry, I secured the wire to the inside of the skull and covered the wire with lumps of white, black, and red fondant.  I also dusted the green fondant of the face with brown, black, yellow, and green petal dust.  The colored dust just gives the flesh a more realistic look. (If you consider zombies real.)

After this I just added the pink fondant for the brains.  I also mixed a little red petal dust with some piping gel and applied it to the brain.  The tinted piping gel gave the brains a slimy look.  I also added some black, stringy fondant hair and some red candy melt blood to finish off the look.  I went a little overboard with the blood, and I had to chip some of the candy blood off of the cake once it hardened.

So what do you think?  Is it totally gross?  

And so the party wasn't a total gross-fest, I made some cute-ish brainy skull cookies to go with the cake.  See, exposed zombie brains can be cute.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Easy Baby Bottom Cake - Feet made with cookie cutters

This baby bottom cake came together easier than I thought it would.  A baby bottom, two chubby feet, and a baby blue blanket.  This cake was a piece of cake to make.  LOL  

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I started with a half sphere cake and a three layer 9" cake.   For the half sphere I used the Wilton 3D 6" Sports Ball Pan.  I only used one of the two pans.  After the cake was baked and cooled, I cut the cake in half horizontally, added some filling between the two layers, crumb coated the outside of the sphere, and covered it with white fondant.  I used Renshaw fondant for this because it taste so much better than Wilton, and I figured people might actually eat the fondant.  The Renshaw also doesn't get cracked and wrinkly like Wilton or Satin Ice.  Below you can see that my finished baby bottom isn't very smooth, but I didn't worry about its appearance because the blanket and feet would cover most of it. 

Once covered, I placed the half sphere on the buttercream covered 9" round cake.

Next I made the baby's feet using a cookie cutter.  I suck at sculpting, so using a cutter is the path I usually take.  Below is the sketch I used to make the cookie cutter.     

I uploaded the sketch to CookieCad.com, downloaded a STL file and used my Creality Ender 3 v2 3D printer to actually print the cutter.  If you want to read an intro into 3D printers for cookie cutters you can read my post HERE.  So with the cutter ready I started on the feet.  In the upper left of the photo below you can see a foot that is finished.  In the lower right I am making the other foot.  Rather then pushing the cutter into the fondant (which gives a sharp edge and ragged sides to the cut fondant), I placed a piece of plastic wrap into the cutter and then push the fondant into the cutter.  This gives the outer edges of the foot and toes a soft, rounded look.

 Here I turned over the cutter to make sure I pushed the fondant into all the toes.

Next I just use the plastic wrap to pull the foot out of the cutter.  The foot on the left is just out of the cutter you can see it needs to be cleaned up a little.  I just pushed the extra bits of fondant where they belong.

And then I add creases into the foot to make it more realistic.  Aren't they too cute??

The little stubby legs came next.  I tapered the ends where they would go under the feet and against the body.  Don't worry about their shape too much.  Most of the legs will be hidden by the big feet and the blanket.

The legs and feet go onto the cake and snuggle up against the baby bottom.  The feet looked really wrinkly once I put them on the cake.  I hate how quickly Wilton fondant dries out!  But at least in this case the wrinkles and creases actually make it foot more life-like.

Next I put a fondant bow around the base of the cake.  It looks a little messy, but hey, the cake is just for family.  LOL.

Add some circles of fondant in 3 shades of blue, and add the lettering for "It's a boy" using FMM Tappit cutters.

And for the final touch the blanket covering the baby's bottom.  I used an impression mat to put a pattern on the fondant, cut it into a rough circle, and crimped the edge to give it a more finished look.

Then I just draped the blanket on the baby's bottom, and called it DONE!  

See how easy that was!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Bridal Shower Naked Cake with Drip and Roses

I'm going to say it again, "I hate naked cakes."  In theory they should be easy, but they are so much harder to frost then regular cakes.  The sides of the cake need a to have a nice carnalized skin on the outside, and the side need to bake straight and even with no shrinkage away from the pan.  My cakes just don't do that!!  So here is my latest attempt at a naked cake.  The only thing I can say is that it is better than the last one.

But I did like the gum paste roses, they came out nice.  Colors are wine, pink, and white.

Happy Decorating,

Carol