Flower Fault Line Cake

The Fault Line Cake (also known as Torn Buttercream) is the hottest new trend in cake decorating. Think earthquake (sorry California) where the earth cracks open and exposes what is below. The fault gap can hold anything: sprinkles, stripes, naked cake layers, or even flowers. The flower version is my favorite. 

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A friend asked for a chocolate 50th Birthday Cake so I decided to make her a chocolate Fault Line Cake filled with flowers.  I made a bunch of gum paste flower ahead of time - roses and carnations and hydrangeas in shades of white, rose, and peach.  (Don't tell my boss, but I make the flower at work during my lunch hour.)

To make the cake itself I baked four 8" cakes and one 5" cake.  I placed the 5" cake between the stacked 8" cakes which gave me a nice deep depression to hold my gum paste flowers.

I crumb coated the cake, chilled it for 30 minutes, and then arranged my flowers in the gap.  Thankfully I had just enough flowers.

To fill the open spaces between the gum paste flowers I piped stars and leaves in pink and green buttercream.  Next I slathered on a thick layer of black buttercream over the 8" sections of the cake and then smoothed the buttercream with my bench scraper.  The pushing and flattening of the buttercream causes a rough edge to form over the gap.  The rough edge and the flowers peaking out from under it makes it look like an earthquake has open a gash in the earth and flowers have begun to grow in the gap.  How cool is that?!

After chilling the cake for a short time, I  painted the edge of the fault with gold edible luster dust mixed with Everclear.  The gold color really makes the fault line pop.

At this point it was close to midnight, so I put the cake in the fridge and went to bed.  The next morning I used my Cricut to cut out the gold cake topper, removed the cake from the fridge, and placed by gold topped on the cake.  I started taking pictures and realized that I hated the cake.   I mean HATED IT.  I thought it looked ugly and morbid.  I started to panic.  I couldn't deliver a cake that looked this bad.  I asked family members for their impression of the cake (hoping I was overreacting and it wasn't that bad), but EVERYONE I asked also hated it.  One comment was, "It isn't pretty but it is interesting."  Another person said, "It looks macabre."   And the final comment was just, "Ewwww!"

It was 2 hours before delivery and I was desperate to fix the monstrosity.   I had some soft consistency white buttercream left over from a previous cake, so I stiffen it up and just started slopping it on top of the black.

I made it as smooth as I could, painted on my gold, and threw on some edible gold flecks.  I also had to cover the black cake drum with white fondant, and replace the ribbon around the edge.  It came down to the wire, but I was able to finish.

So here is the "fixed" version, and NO, I'm not going to post the hideous black version.  I don't want the poor thing to show up on Cake Wrecks.

Happy Decorating,

Carol


Supply List: 


14" Black Cake Drum
Satin Ice Gum Paste
PME Bench Scraper
Roxy & Rich Gold Edible Luster Dust
Cricut Explorer Air 2

Chinese Take Out Box made out of Cake

My niece is crazy for Chinese food (Lo Mein in particular), and her favorite restaurant is named China Moon.  So for her birthday I made her cake that looks like a Chinese take-out box filled with Lo Mein Noodles!

On the back of the box it has what I think/hope is the word Noodle written in Chinese.

On the sides I have Enjoy and Thank You.

And the top is just noodles, noodles, and more noodles.  Plus a few fondant veggies.

Construction started with a take-out box shaped cake.  I angled the sides of a 6" square cake to give it the sloped look, and I placed the cake upside down on a cardboard sheet.  (I  thought it would be easier to attach the fondant with the cake in this position.)  Next I printed a paper templet of a take-out box to exactly match the dimensions of my cake.  I worked on each side individually.  I cut the fondant to match the templet and then placed the fondant on the cake.  I was hoping my fondant "flaps" would dry and hold this position when I flipped the cake over, but no such luck.

The two, smaller side panels of fondant went on easy.  I also put some parchment paper under the flaps to keep them from sticking to the cardboard,

But the other two panels, being larger, gave me some trouble.  I couldn't lift them and put them on the cake without them getting all stretched out of shape.

So I cut a piece of cardboard, and wrapped the fondant it around it so I could transfer the fondant to the cake.  I put parchment paper between the overlapping pieces of fondant to keep them from sticking to each other.

Then with everything all neatly folded up, I positioned it on the cake and then unfolded the flaps into their correct position.  One edge looks a little wonky, but I made that edge a little larger than necessary so I could trim it even with the cardboard base of the cake.

So here are all the panels in place.  In hindsight I should have dusted the edges with a little brown powder food color - just to give the edges more definition - but I forgot.  Oops...

I decided I didn't like the flaps sticking out straight, so I propped them up hoping they would dry, and stay in that position.  They didn't!!

When I flipped the cake right-side-up, the flaps immediately started to droop.  But no worries, I just cut some pieces of out of cardboard cake rounds and stuck them under the flaps to hold them upright.  You can't see it, but the cardboard support is under the covered board on top of the cake.

Then I just started making the noodles.  I used my trusty Ace Extruder and just squeezed out tons of noodles.  Making the noodles was actually the easiest part of this cake construction.

For the chopsticks I just rolled gumpaste around bamboo skewers.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the other stuff, but for the veggies I just cut the shapes from orange and green colored fondant.  Nothing fancy there.  For the fortune cookies I cut out gum paste circles, pinched one side together, stuffed the ends with a little cling wrap to keep them open, and then draped the circle over the edge of a cup to give them that fortune cookie shape.  Easy peasy.

So Happy Birthday, Laura.  I hope you like your noodles!


Happy Decorating,

Carol

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Supply List: 

Mona Lisa Fondant
Wilton Tylose Powder
Black 10" Cake Drum
Fondarific Black Fondant
Fondarific Red Fondant
Razor Slicer
ACE Food Safe Extruder