Itsa Luigio!

This cake was both fun and frustrating. Fun coz it's a 3D video game character, frustrating coz some bits didn't fit and when they did, they wouldn't stay where they were supposed to. 

I drew out a footprint template for Luigi's kart. To make sure it's symmetrical, I folded a piece of A4-size paper in half and drew out one side of the footprint and cut out the shape.

I then used the template to trace the shape on foam core board. I like foam boards because they're easy to cut, they're lightweight yet strong. Finally, I can push the central dowel all the way into the board.

 Covered the board with foil and here's my cakeboard.

Using Debbie Brown's madeira sponge recipe, I made a 12" square sheet cake, and cut it into rough rectangular shapes.

I cut off some sharp corners...

Using the cakeboard as a template, I rounded the corners.

Stuck layers together with dark chocolate ganache and shaped some more, also added a small rectangle piece at the back of the kart.

After a bit more shaping and also added the front piece. I didn't take pics, but there's another triangular piece I added to the front just to help the nose taper down nicely.

Applied first coat of ganache. Ganache looked really sloppy coz I forgot to make it the day before and I couldn't wait for it to set so I applied it runny and left it in the fridge for a few hours.

This is after second coat of ganache, much less sloppier than the first.

But still looking rough. Again, forgot to take pics after 3rd ganache coat and smoothing out.

Forward fast 2 days later, just to show how I held Luigi's cap rim in place - by tying some cling wrap around his head.....

Luigi in his kart with bits held up using pieces of sponge.

Luigi all glossy after steaming with my trusty Philips steam station. The steaming is a great way to clean up remnants of corn flour on fondant, especially with such bright and vibrant colours.

Luigi the next morning. The gloss disappeared when the steam dried.

Yes, I know... Luigi's kart has 4 exhausts, I have only 2 here. This is where it got terribly frustrating. I initially fitted 4 exhausts, then hubby pointed out there wasn't any space to fit the back tyres. So, I dismantled all the exhausts, fitted the back tyres, then found there were no more space to fit all four exhausts.

Close ups of the styro support at the bottom of the kart to make the kart tilt. Luigi is actually sitting on another styro support to make him tilt the other direction. These two tilts made it look like Luigi was taking a sharp corner.

The end-result is a cake that's suspended in motion... quite pleased with this one.

Purple pig

This is my other weekend rush job. Got the cake order late Friday night, from Greg.... gotta love my hubby! This is the smallest 3D novelty I've made, it'll only feed like 4 people. LOL. This is coz Greg's taking it to Sydney on the red eyed special first up Monday. Can't even imagine him trying to balance a 3 or 4 tiered topsy turvy in the plane! Hahaha. So, the cake's gotta be small enough to fit in a shopping bag as hand luggage.

First thing's first... prepare foam core cake board. I secured bubble straws in the foam core and slip some fondant discs (slipped discs???) around the straws - these will be the pig's legs.

Greg carved the pig's belly from styrofoam, and there's the model pig in the background. It's a Smart Salary piggy bank... sorta like a corporate mascot I suppose. Purple not quite the right shade but since this is a rush job, I don't have time to play around with colours so I used Satin Ice purple fondant straight from the tub. As it turned out, the model piggy bank is the wrong shade of purple while my cake is very close to the official corporate purple... Yes, the marketing people at Smart Salary actually whipped out their colour charts and compared my pig.... awww......I'm touched!

My trusted Planet Cake white chocolate mud cake layered and covered in dark chocolate ganache.

Oink oink...

 Oink...

 The end!

Oh baby!

Two pregnant workmates, both due about the same time. So thought I'd try another topsy turvy, and this one is more topsy than my first attempt with the teapot. First, concept drawing using my iPad Autodesk Sketchbook Pro app. Love the app coz it works in layers. First layer is the base cake which is the toy box and teddy. Second layer the alphabet blocks. This way, if the topsy turvy doesn't work, I don't have to erase everything and start over; I simply erase the second layer and do the blocks again.

Toy box cake is a 6" square orange Madeira sponge, layered and covered with dark chocolate ganache. I cut out fondant rectangles to size and made some wood impressions.

Same thing with alphabet blocks in various colours.

Test out the angles...

Would have loved to add more toys and details but I had 2 novelty cakes to make that weekend, so it was quite a rush job.

Oh well, still got eaten!

Most epic one yet!

This is my most epic cake yet.... a standing bear cake. I'm really chuffed with how it turned out. It's a commissioned piece from my friend Alex for her sister's birthday. Her sister apparently likes Pedo Bear, which is rather inappropriate, I know... but clients do come with the weirdest requests! LOL. Although, Alex's original idea was to just bake a round glutten free dairy free chocolate cake and stick an edible image of Pedo on the cake. I talked her into this! Yes, I'm a sucker for punishment!

Start with watching an inspirational video by Bronwen Weber... do a search on You Tube. Bronwen's "cake bones" are available online but at $100, I decided to make my own... with a bit of help from Greg and Mr Bunnings, a nickname concocted by my buddies from the Facebook Australian Cake Decorating Network. When Greg and I were shopping for PVC bits at Bunnings, this very helpful staff member kept offering his help.... well, we stood looking at and pondering about pipes and bits for over an hour so I guess he realised we were kinda struggling. At his 3rd offer to help, I decided to explain what I planned to make. He scratched his head. I showed him a picture of Pedo Bear and he took off like a rocket.... hmmm.... I suppose that's the sort of effect Pedo Bear has on people.

From the bits and pieces, Greg made this cake skeleton...

Alex got her sister to bake her own birthday cake (smoooooth, Alex!)... It's gluten free, so a bit of a challenge to tort... oops!

Leaning tower of gluten free with cascading waterfall of ganache...

The best thing about chocolate cake is, you can sorta squish fallen bits back into the cake and glue them with ganache... like so...

Slap on a thick layer of ganache and no one's the wiser...

Meanwhile, Greg's prepping the cake board.

He even covered it with cake foil.... awww... looks like store bought!

So professional, it deserves a second look.

Assemble the skeleton, cover with foil. Oh, make sure you wash your bones thoroughly... we put ours through the dishwasher about 3 times.... afterall, they did come from the plumbing section in Bunnings!

Attach the cake board and secure it to the "hip bone"

Homemade LCMs, aka rice krispie treats, aka RKT. For this cake, I used up a giant box of rice bubbles, 3 bags of marshmallows and half a block of butter.... that's how much rice treats is needed to "flesh" out the bones.

One leg before and one leg after. The ganache helps the rice treats to stick to the bones.

Close-up of leg - doesn't that look like a bloody bone with ripped off flesh? Bu-wahahaha!

Greg's very good at packing in the rice treat flesh.

Legs done!

Under-belly done too, cling-wrap to hold everything in place and leave to set.

Once set, attach the spine and slide the cake down the spine, attach the shoulders and foil wrap.

Ganache the shoulders.

Rice treats wrapped around the shoulders and chest.

Plop on the head, which is a styrofoam ball. I used styro coz it's light and will stop the cake being too top heavy.

Okay.... the torso's looking elongated.... oops! Time to perform some surgery. Dislocate the shoulders, then saw off a chunk of the spine... easy... easy.....

Much better. Bear all ganached... well, almost... looks like skin, eh? LOL.

Close up of ganache after Greg and I have slapped it on...

Close up of ganache after smoothing. Best way to smooth ganache on a novelty cake is, wait for the initial slap-on layers to set and harden. Put on a pair of food-grade gloves, get ready a bowl of hot water. Dip fingers in hot water and use fingers to smooth.

Time for the fun stuff. Yet another good thing I stole from Greg (hehe)... his marble rolling pin. Nice and heavy, best ever to roll out fondant.

Stick on fondant one panel at a time.

Almost there...

Done! Sorry... as usual, I get carried away and forget to take pics but you get the picture. It's just the final touches. Pedo Bear says "you're too old for me" which is a good thing!