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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy 1st Birthday, Ezri!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ezri!


My baby is finally 1 year old!  She had a wonderful birthday party filled with family and friends.  Her party theme was storybook fantasy (blame her mom for recently re-reading Lord of the Rings and watching Game of Thrones).  I wanted her party cake to look like an old tome of fairytales (a la Grimm brothers).

Stats:
  • 9" x 6" pound cake iced and filled with Swiss meringue buttercream
  • 8" x 5" chocolate cake iced with chocolate cream cheese frosting
  • cake boards covered with fondant
  • color washed with brown airbrush coloring
  • painted with gold luster dust + Everclear



Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the cake in progress (I had a lot to do!), but I can explain the process.  I have Sharon Zambito's Book Smarts DVD (which I love) but didn't quite do that same process for this cake.


The book covers were fondant covered cake boards (2 per book).  I textured the fondant after covering the boards by crumpling up foil, flattening it out, then pressing it against the fondant.


The cakes were sitting on a cake board slightly smaller than the book covers.  A strip of ivory fondant textured with an all-thread rod covered 3 sides of the cake.


A strip of fondant for the spine was sandwiched between the cake and the covers.  The brown fondant spine accidentally didn't cover all of the cake at one end but instead of re-doing it, I left it looking more old then originally intended!  This is probably the first time my crummy fondant job actually worked in my favor!


I diluted brown airbrush coloring with Everclear and "washed" the fondant to make them look dingy.  The embellishments were gold luster dust mixed with Everclear painted on.  Specifically for the text, I had printed out "Happy Birthday Ezri" with Ruritania font on a piece of paper.  Then I free-handed painted the letters using the printout as reference.  That's why the spacing is inconsistent for the different words!



The cake was put right in the middle of the serving table surrounded by food.  Apparently some people didn't realize what it was and were really confused why I (of all people) didn't have any cake!


24 comments:

  1. That's really funny that some people didn't recognize it as cake, but I can see why. Great job on it! Thanks for the explanation of your process.

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  2. For me, a book cake is very hard to make...I admire your work...

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  3. Very nicely done! I love the distressed look you created with the wash and the cracked spine. And props to you for free-handing the painted letters. It really looks great.

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  4. Nice Work Done,these are really Very innovative designs of cakes.

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  5. Chris, excellent cake decorating skills! Your vision and ability to bring it to life is extraordinary. Happy birthday to Ezri from www.shopbakersnook.com.

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  6. I am the man of the house but my German shows a lot and I am really impressed with those books. Do I read them or eat them? Keep up with the art work.

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  7. Wow......What an Awesome work of Art......

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  8. I just found your blog! I am a 16 yr old cake decorator. I started about 3-4 months ago and have been loving it. I recently made a book cake as well. http://alices-beautiful-cakes.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-cake.html (Though your's is so much better!) I didn't use cake boards or anything so it was all just fondant. And let me tell you. It was difficult. I wasn't very happy with the end results but it was a fun process. :) I would love it if any one of you could look at my blog. http://alices-beautiful-cakes.blogspot.com/

    Thank you!
    Alice

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  9. What a great cake! I love that you did books and don't worry about not having the work in progress pics, because these are awesome. I noticed you have the Sharon Zambito's DVD, would you recommend that for someone who is just starting to do cake decorating for fun? I am planning on getting a kit, but I really want more resources for instructional help. Thanks and happy birthday to your little girl! http://www.cookiesandmore.com.au/cm_content_01/retail.html

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