Gold Dripped, Pink & White Striped Candy Buffet Cake with Minnie Cookies

This cake has just about everything stuck on it.  I call it a Gold Dripped, Pink & White Striped Candy Buffet Cake with Minnie Mouse Ear Cookies.  There is almost too much going on in this cake, but it is what the customer (aka best friend of my niece) wanted.

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This cake had a few "firsts" for me.  The first first was the striping technique.  I had seen it done on lots of videos, but this was the first excuse I had to give it a try.  But before the "real" cake I did a few testers using two different striping tools.  First I tried the PME Tall Edge Scraper, but I didn't like it because the bottom of the scraper (which was a tooth) kept getting caught on the cardboard cake round and acrylic disk I had under the cake. (I use the acrylic disk to the sides of my cake straight and the edges super sharp. Here is a link to my tutorial.) To keep the bottom "tooth" of the scraper from interfering with the disk, I had to put a 3/4" thick layer of icing around the cake.  That is A LOT of icing.

Next I tried the Wilton Icing Smoother Comb.  This one worked better because the edge closest to the base of the cake was a "gap" and not a "tooth" therefore I didn't have to worry about the tooth of the comb hitting the my cake board or the acrylic disk.  But I didn't like the Wilton Scraper/Comb because the distance between the teeth of the comb was so narrow.  The tight pattern of stripes on the Wilton tool took a lot more time to fill with the contrasting colored buttercream than the much wider pattern on the PME tool.  I was also concerned that the tight pattern wouldn't look good on a tall cake.

So in the end I went with the PME tool for my "real" cake.  To get around the problem with the base "tooth", I trimmed the cardboard cake round a little smaller and I didn't use the bottom acrylic disk.  I also learned that you dodn't need as much icing on the cake if you hold the tool at a 45 degree angle to the cake instead of perpendicular (90 degree angle) while you are scraping.  Below is the cake after passing the comb scraper over it a few times.  On the top of the cake is a 8-1/2" acrylic disk that I use to get my cakes perfectly straight with super sharp edges.  It was a stroke of luck that the "tooth" of the comb fit under it perfectly.  At the base of the cake I used a 12-1/2" acrylic disk.  Normally you would use the same size disk on the top and bottom, but because of that pesky bottom "tooth" on the PME tool I had to do something different.  I used the 12-1/2" disk just so I could transfer the cake to the freezer without disturbing the soft buttercream.

After the cake was chilled and the buttercream rock hard, I pipped the pink buttercream into the gaps.  I also smeared the pink over the white just to make sure I filled in all the crevices.  And you need to work fast when you fill with the contrasting color because you don't want the white buttercream to soften and start moving around while you are adding the pink.

Then using a bench scraper you just start scraping off the surface layer of buttercream to reveal the perfect pattern underneath. But just take off little bits of buttercream at a time.  The acrylic disk at the top of the cake also kept me from taking off too much buttercream and exposing the cake and/or the crumb coat.

And here is the cake after the final scrape.  With the combs/scrapers it is easy to get the perfect striped look.  At this point it goes back into the refrigerator to chill.

And once chilled I remove the acrylic disk at the top to reveal the flat top and sharp edges.

I would have been happy with the cake like this, but they wanted a gold drip, so drip I did.  I also made some Mouse shaped cookies and painted them with gold too.

I tried a few different styles of mouse ear cookies, but ended up using the black lettering on the gold background.  It seemed to pop more.

And then I just started stacking candy on top of the cake.  I had 4 kinds of suckers, dipped Oreos, and Rice Krispies Treats.  I had white chocolate bars, gum balls, and white chocolate Twix bars.  I had rainbow colored Sixlets, white chocolate covered pretzels,  and even a cupcake.  If you are a candy lover, this style of cake is for you.

So not one of my favorite cakes (too busy looking), but it was a great learning experience.

Happy Decorating,

Carol



Supply List: 

PME Tall Edge Scraper
Wilton Icing Smoother Comb
8-1/2" acrylic disks
12" White Cake Drum
Rainbow Colored Sixlets
White Chocolate Twix Bars
Rice Krispies Treats
Gum Balls
Mouse Ear Cookie Cutters
Silicone Bow Mold

Safari Baby Shower Cake

I hosted a Safari themed baby shower for my niece, and of course I made the cake.

The cake itself was easy to make - not much to it, but the figures were a PITB.  I'm not very good at making figures so I used some Youtube videos for instructions.

For the lion I used a combination of two videos.  I liked the head from Happy Little Baker's tutorial but the body from Zoe's Fancy Cakes.

For the giraffe I again used a combination of two videos.  Again the head came from  Happy Little Baker and the body came from Lets Clay with EWA.

The monkey (which is my favorite) was all Zoe's, and the coconut tree was from Francesca's SugarArt.

The zebra instruction came from Just Cake It, although I again used the face from Happy Little Baker.  In Just Cake It's video she painted the stripes onto the zebra's body, but I didn't have any luck with that method.  The painted stripes came out a little messy looking and the color ended up looking more more purple than black.  I didn't like my painted zerbra at all (he was also too big), so I tossed him and made a second zebra this time just using very thin pieces of black fondant to make the stripes.

And after all that work creating my safari animals this is how they ended up.  I always struggle with what to do with the figures and flowers after taking them off the cake.  Poor little guys; they look so sad.

I also made a bunch of other treats for the party.  I tried Chocolate Dipped Oreos for the first time, and I also make some brownie Cakesicles.

And cookies, I made lots of cookies.  The monkey and the bear were my favorites.  The zebra came out a little mean looking, and the elephant just looked strange. The tiger looked more like a house cat, and the lion looked like he just had a perm.  Cookies are hard to make - much harder than cakes.

Happy Decorating,

Carol