3D
Traveling Circus
by Lindsey Wexler @Lindseywexler · submitted Aug 17, 2010 · 2010 contest
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Description
Hello! My name is Lindsey and I'm 19 years old. I saw this competition last year after it had ended and I was pretty bummed. Of course, by this year I had completely forgotten about it until I saw some of the entries on Cake Wrecks' Sunday Sweets. A few months ago, I decided to take a break from cake decorating, but when I stumbled across this contest AGAIN, I took it as a sign that I had to enter.
It took me a few weeks to decide on a design. I finally chose one, but I kept going back to Traveling Circus. I kept thinking how awesome it would be if someone could replicate that design in cake. Finally I decided to go big or go home and started working on Traveling Circus.
I knew that the rules stated that there should be as little inedible support as possible, but I couldn't see any other way to make a 3D interpretation of this design without a strong internal structure. 1/2" PVC pipes were used as the arms, legs and spine of the traveling circus man as well as a single pipe to support the suitcase of animals he caries. Building the structure with my dad was one of the most fun parts of the whole process :).
For the cake I used a pound cake mix to save time. Then I made home made butter cream frosting and royal icing. I also made home made rice krispy treats and modeling chocolate, which I've never done before.
I made templates for all of the people and signs by printing out an enlarged image. I then cut each one out of a mixture of rolled fondant and gumpaste and hand painted them with airbrush food colors.
The main circus tent was made from five nine inch rounds stacked around the support. I covered the tent in fondant and then carved the little tent-y mounds on top and covered each in fondant individually. 75% of the head is cake, but the bottom 25% is rice krispy treats. The cannon/smoke arm and legs are sculpted from rice krispy treats as well and covered in fondant. The flaming arm is sculpted from modeling chocolate, covered in fondant, and then covered in piped royal icing "flames." The suitcase was a small stack of pound cake covered in fondant. All parts of the cake were either hand-painted or airbrushed. I used draped fondant for his mustache. For the grass, I used a star tip to imprint and twist up the fondant and then airbrushed it. I used airbrushed royal icing to give the sides of the board the look of being pulled up from the ground.
Everything was attached with royal icing. I used Christmas sprinkles for the lights outside of the tent entrance :). I was going to add a hat, but couldn't get it to look the way I wanted it to, so I just nixed it.
All in all I spent well over 80 hours on this cake, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Thanks for looking! :)
It took me a few weeks to decide on a design. I finally chose one, but I kept going back to Traveling Circus. I kept thinking how awesome it would be if someone could replicate that design in cake. Finally I decided to go big or go home and started working on Traveling Circus.
I knew that the rules stated that there should be as little inedible support as possible, but I couldn't see any other way to make a 3D interpretation of this design without a strong internal structure. 1/2" PVC pipes were used as the arms, legs and spine of the traveling circus man as well as a single pipe to support the suitcase of animals he caries. Building the structure with my dad was one of the most fun parts of the whole process :).
For the cake I used a pound cake mix to save time. Then I made home made butter cream frosting and royal icing. I also made home made rice krispy treats and modeling chocolate, which I've never done before.
I made templates for all of the people and signs by printing out an enlarged image. I then cut each one out of a mixture of rolled fondant and gumpaste and hand painted them with airbrush food colors.
The main circus tent was made from five nine inch rounds stacked around the support. I covered the tent in fondant and then carved the little tent-y mounds on top and covered each in fondant individually. 75% of the head is cake, but the bottom 25% is rice krispy treats. The cannon/smoke arm and legs are sculpted from rice krispy treats as well and covered in fondant. The flaming arm is sculpted from modeling chocolate, covered in fondant, and then covered in piped royal icing "flames." The suitcase was a small stack of pound cake covered in fondant. All parts of the cake were either hand-painted or airbrushed. I used draped fondant for his mustache. For the grass, I used a star tip to imprint and twist up the fondant and then airbrushed it. I used airbrushed royal icing to give the sides of the board the look of being pulled up from the ground.
Everything was attached with royal icing. I used Christmas sprinkles for the lights outside of the tent entrance :). I was going to add a hat, but couldn't get it to look the way I wanted it to, so I just nixed it.
All in all I spent well over 80 hours on this cake, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Thanks for looking! :)