TMNT and the Secret of the Oozing Buttercream

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

and the Secret of the Oozing Buttercream

Event: "That Takes The Cake" 2011
7th Annual Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition (Austin, TX)

BUT I DIDN'T ACTUALLY SUBMIT THIS CAKE

Division: Adult Intermediate

Style: Buttercream Only

Media: styrofoam dummy, Wilton buttercream

So I was too embarrassed to enter this cake into the show.  I felt fantastic about it when I finished it ... but that was over a week ago.  When I brought the cake out before the show, I saw how the colors had bled and the whole thing didn't look as bright as it used to.  I just looked at it again to take pictures and you know what?  I should have just submitted the damn thing.  It's not a train wreck.  Know what else?  I would have grabbed an easy 3rd place!  There were only 2 cakes in my division for that category.  Oh well, maybe next year ;)

St. Patrick's Day Wedding

 St. Patrick's Day Wedding
Wedding Tiered

Event: "That Takes The Cake" 2011
7th Annual Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition (Austin, TX)

Division: Adult Intermediate

Style: Wedding Tiered

Media: styrofoam dummies, modeling chocolate, fondant, piping gel

Wow, I actually finished a cake early!  I was quite proud of this one until I sat it down next to all my competitors' cakes in awe.  It was a total shock that this won 3rd place.  The judges said it was very clean.  This also go the attention of the representatives from CakeCentral.com.  I got the first ever Cake Central Choice Award!  Today I had a short phone interview with them.  Hopefully you'll be able to see my ramblings in Volume 2, Issue 2!

If you're interested in the work that went in to this (around 20 hours), here is my work log for this cake.  When I was working on it, I kept having to justify sacrificing time for re-doing several parts because they weren't perfect.  Now I understand that doing so makes all the difference in competition.

Worst Cake Ever.

Worst Cake Ever.

"Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons

Event: "That Takes The Cake" 2011
7th Annual Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition (Austin, TX)

Division: Adult Intermediate

Style: Sculpted

Media: cake, modeling chocolate, rice cereal treats, gumpaste, food coloring, candy coating, PVC piping, metal flanges, wood boards

Since I knew the show theme was "Comic Books", I've been wanting to make this guy for a long time.  This is my first cake using PVC for internal structure.  He didn't really turn out how I wanted due to time constraints, but he still took home 3rd place.

I finished him at 3:30 in the morning on the day of the show.  He was heavy, but he was as sturdy as a rock.  He has 1/2" pipe in each leg, secured to the wooden base by adapters and metal flanges.  I smooshed rice cereal treats and formed legs, feet, and his butt.  I then covered that with gumpaste.  After drying over night, his bottom half not going to budge for nobody!

I had plenty of cake to play with.  Carving went well and I used cake spackle to build up any other areas.  He's got some pink icing inside because I had a lot of pink left over from a failed buttercream-only cake.  His head is rice cereal treats over the end of his spinal pipe.  Modeling chocolate provided the rest of his flesh, hair, and clothing.  It was so late in the night, I was completely out of time and couldn't do any of the finishing touches that I would have liked.  The judges specifically called them out too: shoelaces, belly button, etc.  Oh well, maybe next year.

He was still very nice to slice into ... had my stop myself from chowing down.  No one should eat competition cake that's been sitting in a convention center for 3 days in front of hundreds of people!

Tuskarr of Northrend

Tuskarr of Northrend

from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Event: "That Takes The Cake" 2011
7th Annual Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition (Austin, TX)

Division: Adult Intermediate

Style: Special Techniques

Media: modeling chocolate, rice cereal treats, royal icing, food coloring, candy coating, wooden skewer and toothpicks

This little guy won 1st place in his category!  I had a great time making him and hopefully he'll last for a while.  If you're interested, here is my work log for him.

What is a Tuskarr?  The Tuskarr are a race of walrus humanoids present in the massive multiplayer online role playing game World of Warcraft (i.e. a video game).  They were introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  I have a strong fondness for these creatures because they are based off of Eskimo and Inuit tribes.  To me, they're like the Filipinos of the north!  Tuskarr are jolly and live simple lives, but possess strong beliefs and come from a rich culture.  For my birthday I got a Tuskarr model that is wonderfully detailed with excellent craftsmanship.  I wanted to create a sugar art piece that would honor these creatures.

I used a wire coat hanger to make a rough skeleton to support the model. This was screwed in to a 10" wooden square base and additionally secured with hot glue.  Rice cereal treats were compressed around the wire frame and became the majority of his bulk.  I coated the shaped rice cereal treats with thin Royal Icing and he was left to dry.  Modeling chocolate was pressed and smoothed around that, creating musculature and giving him more weight.  I used clay and gumpaste tools to carve and sculpt his features.  Finally he received an extensive coloring session using a variety of gel, powder, and liquid food colorings.  His spear is a chocolate covered wooden skewer.  The other accents are modeling chocolate.  I used a clay extruder to make ropes from modeling chocolate.  No molds were used.

That Takes The Cake 2011 Preview

That Takes The Cake 2011 Preview

Folks, it's been a loooooong weekend for me and hubby.  I've got a lot to say about how awesome "That Takes The Cake" 2011 was, but my arms are too tired to keep going tonight.  Here's some stuff to look at though!

My cake pics:

Winners Slideshow:

http://thattakesthecake.org/2011winners/ThatTakesTheCakeWinners.html

Competition Work Log: Special Techniques

Competition Work Log: Special Techniques

For the longest time I had not decided what I would do for this category.  I think I decided some time last week.  It's coming along great though!

02/20/11: Hubby and I were re-organizing the den so we could put in my new computer desk.  In doing so we sacrificed a small shelf that held our router and wireless modem to my cake cause.  The shelf inserts were 10"x10" squares that was a perfect base for my model.  I screwed in 2 screws and attached a wire frame (wire coat hanger) to them.  With a generous helping of hot glue, the wire frame was going no where.  I made some rice krispie treats to make the majority of my model's bulk.  Turns out the wire stuck out too far on the top.  We didn't have any appropriate wire cutters so I was at a loss how to reconcile that.  Hubby said I could try the branch cutters and it worked great!  After the bulk was attacked, I covered it with goopy royal icing and let it harden over night. ~ 2 hours.

01/21/11: In a way, I now think modeling chocolate is easier to work with than clay.  I don't have to do any moisture control, just temperature management.  I put a layer of modeling chocolate over my model and sculpted out his features and musculature.  It was fun!  I have a plastic model that I used for reference, but I tried to not make it an exact copy.  I'm letting him "dry" overnight and hopefully painting him will go well.  ~ 3 hours.

01/22/11:  Painting did not go well at first.  I learned the hard way that modeling chocolate and food coloring don't like each other.  I don't know how, but I got some magical combination of gel coloring, Wilton White White, airbrush coloring liquid, and food coloring powder to all play nice and made some sort of opaque paint.  I doubt I'll ever be able to reproduce this!  Next time I'm investing in come cocoa butter colorings.  ~ 2 hours.

01/24/11:  I finished my model's accessories and the board.  Extruding and working with thin ropes of modeling chocolate is very tricky!  You can't handle it for very long or it starts to soften from the heat of your fingers.  I had several ropes threaten to melt as I was trying to place them around my model.  For the board, at first I was going to grind some rice and press it into buttercream on the surface to simulate rocky earth, but it turned out just rough buttercream that was slightly tinted looked great!  Saved me lots of time.  It's all done!  ~ 2 hours.

Competition Work Log: Buttercream Only

Competition Work Log: Buttercream Only

Gah, no wonder no one enters this category!  This is HARD!  Today is my 3rd attempt at this entry.  The first idea I had seemed really cool and unique.  I started trying out some sort of sculpted, pleated fabric look using a combination of freezing piped fondant and pouring "steamed" fondant over it.  Dismal failure.  It just looked like ugly zig-zag piping.  2nd attempt was to do some stenciling.  Yet another dismal failure.  The stencil kept sticking to the base buttercream.  My 3rd attempt is in the works ... it's a pretty extensive frozen buttercream transfer.  I have no idea how it looks at the moment (since it's upside-down).  I'm scared to continue ... what if I do all the other work for the cake, but then the transfer stinks???

What kinda stinks is that all I have to do is enter and I'll probably place!  Last year there were only 2 cakes in the Adult Intermediate division for buttercream-only.  All I have to do is something and I can't seem to get anything going for me!

02/16/11: Completely dismissed 2 attempts after utter failure. ~5 hours.

02/17/11: Completed most of the frozen buttercream transfer.  Hope it's ok! ~4 hours.
02/17/11 (update): Done!  The frozen buttercream transfer looked great!  The only problem was either the parchment paper underneath either got most or the buttercream contracted it ... because it wrinkled in one spot.  I tried to build up more icing on top once I saw that, but it's not perfect.  Next time I'll invest in some food-grade acetate to pipe on to. ~2 hours.