3D
Adventurer
by Layla Cantlebary @laylagalise · submitted Jul 21, 2009 · 2009 contest
1 / 56
Description
I came up with a few design ideas, but decided (insanely) to make three cakes. I went on vacation for a week and a half, came back and suddenly there were tons of amazing entries. Intimidated though I was, I decided to go ahead and enter. Hopefully, what I lack in technical proficiency I'll make up for with cleverness. This design, like my others, is inspired by the original shirt design, so it’s not the original design in cake (I didn’t feel like I could live up to the shirt designs). This was the first design idea I came up with-- I thought it would be cute to use a cake instead of a t-shirt (since our canvas is cake and the original canvas was a t-shirt). I thought I’d use a little slice of cake as the explorer, but it was easier to use a mini cupcake. I decided to only fondant the top of each tier and leave the sides bare because I thought it made the cake more resemble a snow-covered mountain.
I started on a Wednesday and finished on Sunday. Needless to say, I'm done baking cakes for a while. I used boxed cake mixes, icing and pre-made gumpaste. I did make my own vanilla fondant (and used eight pounds of powdered sugar). I made all the fondant on Wednesday, since it has to rest for 12 hours, and wrapped each batch up individually in plastic wrap. Then, Thursday night and early Friday morning I made all the cakes (11 boxes!). This was the first cake I put together, so I started it on Friday evening and finished it on Saturday morning. After all the cakes were made, I made the gumpaste decorations (so they would have to dry overnight). For this cake, I made the “you are here” sign, a ladder, a pickaxe, the thought bubble and the arms and legs of the cupcake man out of gumpaste. I pinched off small amount of gumpaste and colored them brown and green (I also use leftover silver gumpaste from another cake). I then rolled out the brown fondant to cut the sign. Then I used a paintbrush to apply some extra brown gel coloring to the sign (in an attempt to weather it). I used the same color gumpaste to make the ladder, the handle of the pickaxe and the legs of the cupcake man. I put a toothpick in each leg to make them sturdier and to give me something to poke into the cake to secure it. I shaped the pickaxe head from some silver gumpaste and added the brown handle. I formed the cupcake arms out of the green gumpaste. I broke a toothpick in half and put a half in each arm. Then I made the white thought bubble, added the green gumpaste question and exclamation mark and put it on a thin piece of wire. I put the cakes in the fridge to make them easier to level off. I then leveled each layer and iced the top of each layer. Then I put each tier back in the fridge while I dyed the fondant pink. I rolled out the pink fondant to an eighth of an inch thickness and, using cake pans as a guide, used a knife to cut our a wavy-edged circle. After I took out the cake tiers from the fridge, I placed the fondant circle on top of each tiers and smoothed them out. After thoroughly dusting off all excess powdered sugar from the fondant, I stacked the cake tiers. Then I made royal icing in turquoise, orange and black. I used the orange for the cupcake icing, the black for the eyes and mouth, and the turquoise to pipe “you are here” and the “x” on the sign. On Saturday morning I put the cupcake together and added the decorations to the cake. I cut the cake and my friend (and on-and-off photographer), Erin, ate a piece. It was yummy (thanks more to Pillsbury than to me)!
I started on a Wednesday and finished on Sunday. Needless to say, I'm done baking cakes for a while. I used boxed cake mixes, icing and pre-made gumpaste. I did make my own vanilla fondant (and used eight pounds of powdered sugar). I made all the fondant on Wednesday, since it has to rest for 12 hours, and wrapped each batch up individually in plastic wrap. Then, Thursday night and early Friday morning I made all the cakes (11 boxes!). This was the first cake I put together, so I started it on Friday evening and finished it on Saturday morning. After all the cakes were made, I made the gumpaste decorations (so they would have to dry overnight). For this cake, I made the “you are here” sign, a ladder, a pickaxe, the thought bubble and the arms and legs of the cupcake man out of gumpaste. I pinched off small amount of gumpaste and colored them brown and green (I also use leftover silver gumpaste from another cake). I then rolled out the brown fondant to cut the sign. Then I used a paintbrush to apply some extra brown gel coloring to the sign (in an attempt to weather it). I used the same color gumpaste to make the ladder, the handle of the pickaxe and the legs of the cupcake man. I put a toothpick in each leg to make them sturdier and to give me something to poke into the cake to secure it. I shaped the pickaxe head from some silver gumpaste and added the brown handle. I formed the cupcake arms out of the green gumpaste. I broke a toothpick in half and put a half in each arm. Then I made the white thought bubble, added the green gumpaste question and exclamation mark and put it on a thin piece of wire. I put the cakes in the fridge to make them easier to level off. I then leveled each layer and iced the top of each layer. Then I put each tier back in the fridge while I dyed the fondant pink. I rolled out the pink fondant to an eighth of an inch thickness and, using cake pans as a guide, used a knife to cut our a wavy-edged circle. After I took out the cake tiers from the fridge, I placed the fondant circle on top of each tiers and smoothed them out. After thoroughly dusting off all excess powdered sugar from the fondant, I stacked the cake tiers. Then I made royal icing in turquoise, orange and black. I used the orange for the cupcake icing, the black for the eyes and mouth, and the turquoise to pipe “you are here” and the “x” on the sign. On Saturday morning I put the cupcake together and added the decorations to the cake. I cut the cake and my friend (and on-and-off photographer), Erin, ate a piece. It was yummy (thanks more to Pillsbury than to me)!
