3D Finalist
Toast
by Meg O'Connell @notsoquietmeg · submitted Aug 8, 2011 · 2011 contest
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Description
After perusing the designs, I chose "Toast." It's a cute, funny design that I thought would translate to cake rather well. I started out by making two 9 x 13 cakes for the base - yes, I used cake mixes, I'm sorry, but I wanted to spend most of my time on the toast couple.
While the cakes were cooling, I prepared some Rice Krispie Treats and cut out the toast shapes - I ended up cutting out three, so I could pick the best two. For the lady toast, who is sitting up, I positioned the "toast" in between a upside down mini loaf pan and another pan so that I could get the perfect leaning position.
I then worked on coloring the gum paste - to be honest, I thought I was working with fondant pretty much the entire time, wondering why it was drying out so quickly when I was shaping it and brushing the surface with powdered sugar so that it wouldn't stick. Finally, I looked at the package, and low and behold, it's gum paste! And you don't use powdered sugar to prevent it from sticking, you use shortening, so that it doesn't dry out. I ended up redoing the toasts' arms and legs once I came to this revelation. The hands and feet turned out to be the hardest part. I covered the toast-shaped Krispie Treats with royal icing, then gum paste. And to get the tan/freckled look, I took some brown food coloring (the gel kind) and watered it down. Then I took a (NEW) toothbrush dipped it in the food coloring and flicked the bristles so it kind of sprayed the food coloring onto the tan colored gum paste.
The sunglasses are made with gum paste for the frames, and chocolate for the dark glasses. I also used toothpicks to join the sides of the sunglasses to the frames. Oh and the towels and sun tan lotion are gum paste as well. Details were added with food coloring markers.
When I was finally done with all of the sculpting, I put the cakes together using Nutella in between the layers and trimmed the edges. I whipped up some buttercream frosting and tinted it, so that it was a light sandy brown. After frosting the cake, I put all of the pieces together. The cake survived almost and entire day before we cut into it. Cute and delicious, if I do say so myself.
While the cakes were cooling, I prepared some Rice Krispie Treats and cut out the toast shapes - I ended up cutting out three, so I could pick the best two. For the lady toast, who is sitting up, I positioned the "toast" in between a upside down mini loaf pan and another pan so that I could get the perfect leaning position.
I then worked on coloring the gum paste - to be honest, I thought I was working with fondant pretty much the entire time, wondering why it was drying out so quickly when I was shaping it and brushing the surface with powdered sugar so that it wouldn't stick. Finally, I looked at the package, and low and behold, it's gum paste! And you don't use powdered sugar to prevent it from sticking, you use shortening, so that it doesn't dry out. I ended up redoing the toasts' arms and legs once I came to this revelation. The hands and feet turned out to be the hardest part. I covered the toast-shaped Krispie Treats with royal icing, then gum paste. And to get the tan/freckled look, I took some brown food coloring (the gel kind) and watered it down. Then I took a (NEW) toothbrush dipped it in the food coloring and flicked the bristles so it kind of sprayed the food coloring onto the tan colored gum paste.
The sunglasses are made with gum paste for the frames, and chocolate for the dark glasses. I also used toothpicks to join the sides of the sunglasses to the frames. Oh and the towels and sun tan lotion are gum paste as well. Details were added with food coloring markers.
When I was finally done with all of the sculpting, I put the cakes together using Nutella in between the layers and trimmed the edges. I whipped up some buttercream frosting and tinted it, so that it was a light sandy brown. After frosting the cake, I put all of the pieces together. The cake survived almost and entire day before we cut into it. Cute and delicious, if I do say so myself.
Baker’s site: notsoquietmeg.wordpress.com