Wombat Cake (Easy)

October 22 is Wombat Day. http://www.wombania.com/wombat-day.htm
So, of course, we celebrated with cake!

I made the wombats, Matilda and Norman, in advance out of fondant.  To texture the fur, I pulled a fork across the fondant while it was still soft. (Note - the wombats were dark grey, but they look darker in the pics than they were.  Wombats can be grey, black, brown or tawny.) 

This is a large 11x15 sheet cake (made with 2 box mixes), frosted with buttercream icing tinted green.  I topped the sheet cake with an 8" round cake (make with 1/2 a box mix - use the other half for cupcakes) and frosted the top and sides.  I trimmed an 8" cake round to be about 7", then placed this on top of the round cake, with 3 wooden dowels for support.  (Matilda was pretty heavy!)

I covered the round with a bit of green icing, then placed the wombats on top.  To finish, I added "grass" to the top using the Wilton 233 tip and stars on the base using the Wilton 16 tip.  The text was written using a Wilton 3 round tip.

Happy Wombat Day, Y'all!   

To Summer & Beyond (Easy)

This is a set of seven small (mini) cakes that I did for all the kids that had summer birthdays in my son's class.

Each child got his/her own personalized cake, which they loved! My "theme" was space, with a rocket traveling past all the birthday planets towards the "Jr. High Galaxy" at the other end of the board. Most of the cakes were a made in a 6" pan - Wilton round or small paisley, with the square chessboard cake, Spain, rocket and top of the acropolis cut from sections of a rectangular sheet cake. (For Spain, I printed a picture of Spain, then traced it with a knife to get the shape.) I decorated the cake with tinted buttercream and fondant decorations. See the notes by each picture for more detail. Overall, the cakes took about six hours to finish, but the kids were so excited! Priceless!

Rocket
This was just for fun.  I cut the shape from a larger rectangle of cake, then tapered the sides.  Frosted with large white buttercream stars.  The wings, window and flames are fondant.












Summer in Spain
I cut the shape of Spain out of a rectangular cake and then iced with yellow and red buttercream to mimic the Spanish flag.  I printed a copy of Picasso's Guernica and laminated it using laminating sheets from Office Max.  The little girl is made from fondant. (Note - I fixed the sign to say "feliz cumpleanos" before I served it!)










Camping Trip
The tent is made from graham crackers covered in fondant.  The tree is a sugar cone covered with kelly green stars (using the Wilton #16 tip).  The boy are bear are fondant.  This cake uses the small paisley pan.







A Summer of Baseball
This cake was made with 1/2 of the Wilton sports ball pan.













Chess Camp
Square cake frosted with white buttercream then I overlaid white and black fondant squares (rolled very thin and cut with a ruler) to form the chess board.  I used real chess pieces on top.

Beach Vacation
Round cake frosted with ivory-tinted buttercream.  The sand castle elements are made of fondant - there is a bucket on the other side that you can't see.  I dusted the whole cake with a mix of brown and light sugar to make the sand-effect.  There is a pressed fondant crab on the side.






Summer in Athens (the Acropolis)
This cake was a bit more complex - it's a 6" round cake topped with a rectangle of cake cut from a large cake (that also gave me Spain, the rocket and chessboard).  Covered with white buttercream.  The columns on the Parthenon are white chocolate dipped pretzels.   The top is fondant, with little fondant figures. 

Millennium Falcon - Very Difficult

I made this cake several years ago, and it was well beyond my ability at the time.  It's one of the few cakes that I was not happy with, but the boys LOVED it.  Boys at the party immediately recognized it, and apparently that was what mattered.  I still pretty much hate the cake, but it's here for posterity.  And I guess it proves that even if you do something that's beyond you, the kids will still love it.  So shoot for the moon!  Or hyperspace, as the case may be.

In advance, make the satellite dish out of fondant.  Roll fondant, cut a circle, gently score with lines, and place in mini-cupcake pan to get shape.  Let set.  Make a big cone for the base and a small cone for the middle.  Use a bit of toothpick to assemble. 

Also have a good picture handy to help with decorating, esp. for the back.

1. Bake a 14” round layer using a Wilton pan – see pan direction for number of cups of cake batter needed. 

2. Use another mix to make a regular square cake, plus some cupcakes. 

3. Cut the square cake to make the front part of the ship.  Use gray-tinted icing to attach it to the round layer.  Crumb coat the whole cake with Buttercream. 

4. Roll a strip of fondant to lay across the top of round part to make the raised area in the middle.  Can also cut a strip of cake for this, but it is harder to get it to look right.  I think I also added a cupcake top in the middle, for extra height.

5. To make cake pictured, cover the whole cake with gray-tinted rolled fondant.  See: http://www.wilton.com/decorating/fondant/rolled-fondant.cfm  (See my Rolled Fondant Page - do not use Wilton fondant, use a soft, stretchy, high quality fondant.)    This is very tricky to do on the large, odd shape, so it may take some practice.  Be sure the icing is dry before you lay the fondant on it.  Alternative: frost smooth with gray icing.

6. Trim 3 cupcakes so that you have a “tube.” A skewer helps hold them together.  Frost and lay on side of cake.  

7. Decorate with yellow, black, red and gray icing as shown or per your picture.  Decorate back panel with black icing per picture or model.  Finish by adding the satellite dish on top.