The Red Story

Thanks for the opportunity to submit again! This is my second year participating in Threadcakes. My first entry was a Sesame Street design. This year, I wanted to challenge myself a little more and try to showcase my fondant and painting skills that I have been working on this year. I chose The Red Story by Arindra Prakoso. I thought it was such a beautiful design and I wanted to recreate his great work in cake.

I started with cutting out the face and trying to decide how to make her cape. It took me several tries to make the cape. I tried to make it flat, but wasn’t satisfied. I finally decided to try and make it drape like fabric. To make her hair, I could select large sections and just kept working at it with my fondant tool set. I rolled fine strands by hand (no extruder!).

After letting it dry a few days, I started painting. I started light with black mixed with a lot of vodka. Like in watercolor painting, I had to let it dry between applications. It took about 3+ hours to do all the painting. I did the white painting last.

For the actual cake, I baked my favorite King Arthur golden yellow cake and threw in some chocolate chips. I let my two kids help, which I usually don’t allow, but this cake was for family! I put it in the freezer overnight to harden. I crumb coated it the next day. Then the day after that, I covered it with vanilla buttercream and tried to smooth it the best that I could. Finally, I added a border and added red ribbon around the edge of the cake board.

I had a lot of fun making this cake! The painting process was my favorite part. I learned a lot making the hair with fondant because I hadn’t exactly done that technique before. I tried hard to bring this awesome design justice. Hope that you enjoy my many pictures!