3D
I only fight if pillows are present.
by Kelli Hunter · submitted Aug 1, 2009 · 2009 contest
1 / 15
Description
I read about the contest on Cake Wrecks and immediately jumped over to the Threadcakes web site. Oh my! So many shirts…so many ideas…so many cakes! I narrowed down my ideas but couldn’t settle on just one so, two cakes it would be! That presented a big problem…a bigger problem than making two cakes…who would eat two cakes? Knowing I can always count on my family for their support (and cake devouring abilities) I called my parents and arranged a family dinner at their house (nice manners, huh?) for the next week.
I started working on this cake a week before it would be served. Since we couldn’t use toothpicks or wires, I needed the fondant pieces to dry completely to be self supporting. I marbled three different shades of brown fondant for the headboard and wooden floor and set them aside to dry. Four days before the big event I made the body parts out of crispy cereal treats. This was my first foray into the cereal treat world so I wanted to make them in advance. That would give me time to work with it, possibly rework with it, and then let them dry and firm up. I was wrong! It was easy enough to work with to get the shapes I wanted but the drying and firming up never happened. Alas! After they sat for two days, I covered them in buttercream icing, smoothed away the lumps and bumps, and then covered them in fondant. (Forget the toothpicks you see in the drying photo, it was an experiment to see if they’d dry faster standing up…they didn’t!)
The day before the family dinner, I baked a half sheet of chocolate cake. I let it cool and then cut, layered, and iced it to make the bed. I colored some fondant and covered the whole cake/bed, and then used a roller to mark the quilting lines. I attached the headboard to the back of the cake, brushing some vanilla extract between the two pieces to glue them together. I stacked some cake boards and books behind the headboard to hold it in place while it dried. I tiptoed away and let that sit overnight.
The big day arrived and I took all the parts of the cake to the family homestead. I put the pillows on the bed and set out to assemble the people. Without internal support, the pillow fighters were a bit fragile so I didn’t want to stack them until the last minute. The pieces are just sitting on top of each other, held together with vanilla extract, and my hopes and prayers.
Everyone enjoyed dinner and the cake was a hit, as evidenced by the expression on my nephews face…and further evidenced by the little amount of cake left when people were done with dessert.
I started working on this cake a week before it would be served. Since we couldn’t use toothpicks or wires, I needed the fondant pieces to dry completely to be self supporting. I marbled three different shades of brown fondant for the headboard and wooden floor and set them aside to dry. Four days before the big event I made the body parts out of crispy cereal treats. This was my first foray into the cereal treat world so I wanted to make them in advance. That would give me time to work with it, possibly rework with it, and then let them dry and firm up. I was wrong! It was easy enough to work with to get the shapes I wanted but the drying and firming up never happened. Alas! After they sat for two days, I covered them in buttercream icing, smoothed away the lumps and bumps, and then covered them in fondant. (Forget the toothpicks you see in the drying photo, it was an experiment to see if they’d dry faster standing up…they didn’t!)
The day before the family dinner, I baked a half sheet of chocolate cake. I let it cool and then cut, layered, and iced it to make the bed. I colored some fondant and covered the whole cake/bed, and then used a roller to mark the quilting lines. I attached the headboard to the back of the cake, brushing some vanilla extract between the two pieces to glue them together. I stacked some cake boards and books behind the headboard to hold it in place while it dried. I tiptoed away and let that sit overnight.
The big day arrived and I took all the parts of the cake to the family homestead. I put the pillows on the bed and set out to assemble the people. Without internal support, the pillow fighters were a bit fragile so I didn’t want to stack them until the last minute. The pieces are just sitting on top of each other, held together with vanilla extract, and my hopes and prayers.
Everyone enjoyed dinner and the cake was a hit, as evidenced by the expression on my nephews face…and further evidenced by the little amount of cake left when people were done with dessert.
