Quack Attack

When I found out about the contest and checked out the designs, I wanted to do all of them! But of course I had to choose only one. I started with one that had too many details that weren't real cake. They were edible, but the cake itself it was not the big thing. So, I put it aside and chose the Quack Attack Designed by Brian Walline because I could make it 99% cake and those plastic (to me they look like plastic because of the shine :P) ducks were freaking out the little guys! I thought it was so cute :P

So, I made lemon cream cheese pound cakes... lots of them!!! I even lost count of the ingredients. At the end of the baking, it was so automatic that I even forgot I could try another flavor! Only in the last one I remember that and made chocolate. However, lemon cream cheese pound cake is delicious and my husband, Marek, loves eating it during his coffee break. He's not a big fun of the buttercream, though :P good thing I didn't use too much.

I made like 3 or 4 batches of lemon buttercream and about the same of marshmallow fondant.

I borrowed my husband's camera to register the process, but maybe I exaggerated a little. I almost hit the line of 300 pictures, but it was fun to see them in the end. Oh, also it was a lot of work to make take pics while working on the cake. The camera was a little messy in the end and because of all this work, I decided to make the video. I couldn't just waste all of them.

I took about, I don't know, 30 to 36 hours to complete the cake, spread in 12 days because I only could work on it a few hours per day. Some days I could work more, some for a few details, others I couldn't at all. But don't worry... the cake wasn't old, it tasted delicious!! The buttercream and the fondant conserve the cakes fresh, especially in the fridge. I risked it, I put fondant in the fridge. It sweated a after I took it out, but it was ok minutes later.

And the confectioner's glaze helps drying nicely. I used it for giving that plastic shiny toy look that shows in the original. After the sweating was gone, it was smooth again, dry, no sticky, just perfect! It looks a little dry, but it was just because was frozen/chilled. After it got the room temperature, it was very moist! love it!

I found this a good chance to practice carving a big cake and oh boy, it was a lot of work. But I enjoyed it!! and learned so much.However, at some point, I just wanted to finish it :P

The little guys didn't have so much detail just like in the original design, but they made the whole thing make sense :P the captain was brave!!
The ducks, well, I do think they looked freak, but it was the idea. Somehow they reminded me the Joker. That smile on their face.

I did not use any dowels at all for the cakes. Because they were pound cakes and were chilled or frozen, they held up pretty well. I used royal icing for gluing the boat and spaghetti for holding up the little guys' bodies. The only support I used, it was the skewers for sticking the beaks onto the head of the ducks. There was no way for me to attach those beaks onto the cake. The beaks, by the way, were made out of rice krispies and marshmallow. I used the blender for grinding the RK and mixed them out with melted marshmallow to get some sort of dough.

The cake tasted delicious. My husband loved it and he took one duck and the boat to his work in the next day for his coffee break lol and of course, to share with his co-workers (who were so happy to have lots of cake for free! yay!:D ) because it was way too much cake for the two of us. We kept one duck. I cut it into slices and froze them so my husband will have cake for his break for a while ;) and me too, for breakfast. Believe it or not, they still taste good!! That's why I love this recipe.

I'm really happy with the results and can't wait to make more so I can save the pictures for the next years!! The designs give me soooo many ideas and they are so challenging!!! \o/

Thank you guys for this contest!!