Skateboarder Kyle Cake, I made Skateboarder Kyle a month ago. He's made with a 50-50 mix of modelling chocolate and fondant. I made him early to give him time to really dry out and harden, and just don't want to risk him falling apart.
His right ankle did snap, however. We had a week of extremely hot days, temperature in the high 30s with high humidity and the modelling chocolate went soft in the heat. I used a higher ratio of modelling chocolate in the head and limbs which explains why the ankle buckled. I reattached the leg with melted isomalt. Lesson to learn? Use melted isomalt to attach limbs and fiddly bits. There are numerous advantages to using isomalt as glue for limbs in particular. It sets very quickly so there's no chance for bits to slip and slide. Once set, isomalt is very hard and rigid, and as I discovered, isomalt is quite strong coz the leg has remained intact. I even tried to jiggle it yesterday and it would not budge.
I didn't take any progress pics yesterday coz it was the most stressful cake day ever, but here're some progress pics of making Skateboarder Kyle.
In addition to Skateboarder Kyle, I also made the graffiti in advance. I'd always wanted to try painting on fondant and thought I'd give it a go with the graffiti. I freehand drew the outline with Americolor black pen.
I hand-painted the graffiti faces with a paintbrush using Americolor airbrush colours
I used this graffiti art which I found on Google, I basically copied it but I don't know where it came from, so if you're the original artist, please contact me. I'd love to give you due credit. Sorry, I had to copy your piece of work coz I've never painted graffiti before so thought best to just copy someone!
I also did Kyle's name in freehand. Similar to the faces, I used Americolor pen to draw the outline of the name, then painted the fill colours with a paintbrush and Americolor airbrush colours. I applied the finishing touches with gold and silver highlighter dust mixed with rose spirit. Alas, all my efforts ended up in the bin because it didn't fit on the cake.
8 February 2013
I had only one day to put everything together. I've never decorated a cake within a day, I've always done it over two days; but Jo wanted the cake on a Friday night. I wasn't sure I could finish decorating a cake within a day, so the day didn't start on a confident note. I was already feeling stressed out.
Okay, deep breath.... first thing's first: covered an A3-size foam board with cake foil. Rolled out fondant and covered the cake board. My least favourite things to do - kneading and rolling out fondant, so get that done first up. Also, it's a good idea to get the board all prepped up so it has time to dry and harden, less chance of denting it later with fingerprints and all.
Next is making the buttercream; again, not my favourite, not for summer because it doesn't hold up well to the heat unlike ganache but Jo wanted buttercream to offset the richness of the chocolate mud cake. Bimbi made the buttercream with Nioka Guest's buttercream recipe but with a few twists - homemade butter instead of regular butter and I also added a block of melted white chocolate and omitted the 1/4 cup water. Buttercream turned out really fluffy and light, like a cloud, the lightest and fluffiest buttercream I've ever seen. It also tasted divine, no greasiness at all.
Unfortunately, the buttercream turned out to be far from stable. While it firmed up in the fridge, it started to melt very quickly once out of the fridge. I could only work on the cake briefly before the buttercream melted, so I had to work fairly quickly. After every panel of fondant, the cake had to be refrigerated. It was time-consuming and painstaking. I also had visions of fondant sliding off the cake and fondant melting from condensation. Fortunately, Satin Ice appeared to cope quite well with fluctuating temperatures.
By the time I finished covering the cake, it was almost 4:00pm. Time to airbrush but guess what? It's a scorching high 30C outside. The buttercream would turn to mush in that heat and our shoebox house is simply too small to airbrush indoors without having paint vapours ending up everywhere. Tried dusting with grey petal dust for a cement look, turned out blotchy. Tried hand-painting, turned out worse. The board looked like crap and the cake just looked dirty. Didn't look like a skateboard ramp in the slightest. SO ready to chuck it in the bin, close to tears. Never been this stressed out with a cake before. I've always been able to fix things but just didn't feel I could fix any of these. In addition, the bloody buttercream started to melt and was now oozing out of the seams, causing parts of the cake to bulge out. Hmmm... I should just call Jo and say "No deal on this one."
Hubby came home and set up the Dinkydoodle outside. Stuff it, I'll have to airbrush, if it melts, it melts, too bad! Finished airbrushing, buttercream oozing out of every cake crevice.... back into the fridge again. SO OVER this cake!
The dramas didn't stop there either. When I tried to attach the graffiti name which I painted few weeks ago, it wouldn't fit on the cake, well... coz I hadn't factored in the graffiti number-18. Quickly painted another graffiti name, stuck it on the cake, slippery sliding all over the ramp, had to hold it in place and held my breath at the same time. Finally, it decided to stay...
By 6:30pm it's all done. Quickly called up Jo and delivered the cake before it melted any further. Told her to store it in her fridge. No longer my problem once the cake is delivered. Had more nightmares of cake falling apart in transit, even though it was only a 5-minute drive to Jo's place. Fortunately... and that's the ONLY stroke of good fortune for the day..... the cake made it there in one piece. PHEW!
