3D 5th place
Use Your Brain
by rebecca mcdowell @beccaharley · submitted Dec 14, 2016 · 2016 contest
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Description
Back again! I've had my eye on this design since last year, but just had no time to do it then. It is my third zombie themed cake so I think I might call this the last entry in my zombie trilogy.
He is a standard vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, along with shop bought fondant, marzipan and rice crispy treats and took 3 days, give or take, of sporadic work.
After the initial bake, I started on the head first as I felt this element would dictate the sizing of the body. I used marzipan to help shape his features and then covered in fondant which I had coloured a very pale blue.
After carving in his face, I added some tylose powder to some fondant which I then used to make his lower jaw. This powder helped the jaw to go harder than it would usually, as it would partly be supporting the head once in position.
I then carved the body and had to decide how much I could realistically carve away from the back without it toppling over once the head was placed on the front. In order to help with the shape and give the appearance of him leaning forward, I decided to place a single wooden doweling rod through the centre and left quite a lot of cake on the back, to act as a counter balance for when the head was placed on the front.
I used 4 plastic rods to hold the head in position, along with a generous amount of royal icing.
Once the head was in position, I added the details using coloured powders and gel colours as paint.
The forearm and hand were sculpted out of rice crispie treat and fondant, around 1 plastic rod. The sizing for this was particularly awkward as the image has a slight forced perspective about it. The first hand I made was the correct size when placed directly next to the head, but too big, once placed at the front and photographed from the angle I would be using. So the hand was made again.
A similar issue with the glasses arose, as they would be teetering right at the front, I needed to play around with the size. I ended up going for slightly oversized, to help assist in the feeling of him leaning forward. To be honest, I think they are a smidge too big, but hey ho, I will insist on picking designs that feature glasses!
I tried making them out of fondant but opted instead for piping them using royal icing. They were actually very sturdy and stayed put once I stuck them with more icing.
I was without a printer, so had to free hand the writing on his t-shirt, but once it was covered in the usual grime and blood splatter that comes with zombies, it looked fine.
Lastly, I made the speech bubble out of fondant and a long tooth pick.
I'm quite pleased with how he turned out.
I learnt that yet again, gravity always wins and his mouth closed up a bit more than I would have liked, but that my belief in the Royal Icing Gods was just, and they were indeed kind to me.
I would have liked his arm to be a bit more streamlined but at least he has that arm, as I notice that I neglected to give him his right arm. I figured that, as a zombie, it probably just fell off somewhere and got eaten by an animal of some kind.
He is a standard vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, along with shop bought fondant, marzipan and rice crispy treats and took 3 days, give or take, of sporadic work.
After the initial bake, I started on the head first as I felt this element would dictate the sizing of the body. I used marzipan to help shape his features and then covered in fondant which I had coloured a very pale blue.
After carving in his face, I added some tylose powder to some fondant which I then used to make his lower jaw. This powder helped the jaw to go harder than it would usually, as it would partly be supporting the head once in position.
I then carved the body and had to decide how much I could realistically carve away from the back without it toppling over once the head was placed on the front. In order to help with the shape and give the appearance of him leaning forward, I decided to place a single wooden doweling rod through the centre and left quite a lot of cake on the back, to act as a counter balance for when the head was placed on the front.
I used 4 plastic rods to hold the head in position, along with a generous amount of royal icing.
Once the head was in position, I added the details using coloured powders and gel colours as paint.
The forearm and hand were sculpted out of rice crispie treat and fondant, around 1 plastic rod. The sizing for this was particularly awkward as the image has a slight forced perspective about it. The first hand I made was the correct size when placed directly next to the head, but too big, once placed at the front and photographed from the angle I would be using. So the hand was made again.
A similar issue with the glasses arose, as they would be teetering right at the front, I needed to play around with the size. I ended up going for slightly oversized, to help assist in the feeling of him leaning forward. To be honest, I think they are a smidge too big, but hey ho, I will insist on picking designs that feature glasses!
I tried making them out of fondant but opted instead for piping them using royal icing. They were actually very sturdy and stayed put once I stuck them with more icing.
I was without a printer, so had to free hand the writing on his t-shirt, but once it was covered in the usual grime and blood splatter that comes with zombies, it looked fine.
Lastly, I made the speech bubble out of fondant and a long tooth pick.
I'm quite pleased with how he turned out.
I learnt that yet again, gravity always wins and his mouth closed up a bit more than I would have liked, but that my belief in the Royal Icing Gods was just, and they were indeed kind to me.
I would have liked his arm to be a bit more streamlined but at least he has that arm, as I notice that I neglected to give him his right arm. I figured that, as a zombie, it probably just fell off somewhere and got eaten by an animal of some kind.
