3D
Spring Wind Rising
by Kristen Perez · submitted Aug 4, 2009 · 2009 contest
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Description
I had already made a cutesy, fairly simple cake, but I also wanted to do something with a little more components. I chose "Spring Wind Rising" because I like the free flowing, swirly waves, the falling feathers, and the colors of the birds.
Since the birds draw the eye up, I decided to do a 3 tiered stacked cake. The cake is funfetti (love it! and it was on sale!) with a vanilla buttercream filling. I baked one in a 9in. spring form pan, two 8 inchers, and two small ovals. I trimmed the 8inches a little to make them more like 7s and cut the ovals into 5 inch rounds. I gave them a crumb coat and later covered them with white fondant.
I made the feathers and the large bird the day before assembling the cake by rolling out white fondant, cutting it into feather shapes and using an exacto knife to make the feathers feathery. I painted them with coloring gel mixed with lemon extreact and let them dry.
I used straws as my supports (I had read people use straws but I was a little weary about that). After looking at the cake all stacked up the middle tier looked too big for the bottom tier so I ended up stacking them so that they all lined up straight in the back, so from the side it looks like stairs.
Once I got the cake stacked the way I wanted I began painting straight onto it with food gel coloring mixed with a little lemon extract to thin it out. I began with the blues and then added the yellow lines, but quickly found out this was turning my blue green. I decided to cut out strips and curve them onto the cake for the yellow lines and then painted them yellow (also food gel mixed with lemon extract). I then cut out bird shapes from rolled fondant, placed them on the cake, and painted them the colors according to the picture using the same painting method I had been using. Lastly I set the feathers on with either buttercream or water. The large orange bird at the bottom is attached with a toothpick and the feathers are held on by the paint.
Over a course of several days this one took me about 5 hours. To top it off I had my fix of funfetti!
Since the birds draw the eye up, I decided to do a 3 tiered stacked cake. The cake is funfetti (love it! and it was on sale!) with a vanilla buttercream filling. I baked one in a 9in. spring form pan, two 8 inchers, and two small ovals. I trimmed the 8inches a little to make them more like 7s and cut the ovals into 5 inch rounds. I gave them a crumb coat and later covered them with white fondant.
I made the feathers and the large bird the day before assembling the cake by rolling out white fondant, cutting it into feather shapes and using an exacto knife to make the feathers feathery. I painted them with coloring gel mixed with lemon extreact and let them dry.
I used straws as my supports (I had read people use straws but I was a little weary about that). After looking at the cake all stacked up the middle tier looked too big for the bottom tier so I ended up stacking them so that they all lined up straight in the back, so from the side it looks like stairs.
Once I got the cake stacked the way I wanted I began painting straight onto it with food gel coloring mixed with a little lemon extract to thin it out. I began with the blues and then added the yellow lines, but quickly found out this was turning my blue green. I decided to cut out strips and curve them onto the cake for the yellow lines and then painted them yellow (also food gel mixed with lemon extract). I then cut out bird shapes from rolled fondant, placed them on the cake, and painted them the colors according to the picture using the same painting method I had been using. Lastly I set the feathers on with either buttercream or water. The large orange bird at the bottom is attached with a toothpick and the feathers are held on by the paint.
Over a course of several days this one took me about 5 hours. To top it off I had my fix of funfetti!
