Fake Pandas Have More Fun

I knew that one of my co-workers birthday was coming up, so I told her to look at threadless.com and pick out three designs she really liked. I didn’t tell her why, but just that she’d find out soon enough. Of the three designs she picked out I figured that Fake Panda’s would make for a great 3D cake. I made an 8in square cake and 6 cupcakes. I cut the 8in cake in half, stacked the cake with a layer of butter cream in between. I carved 3 of the cupcakes, one for each of the characters in the boat. I attempted to roll out a fondant but it kept sticking so I used butter cream to ice the cake. For the panda face and the head/tail of the boat creature I made pastillage, a type of sugar clay. When allowed to dry it becomes rock hard. To support the face I used wood dowels painted with food dye. Overall it took about 6 hours to bake and create. The last picture is of my co-worker and her birthday cake.