Holiday Roast Turkey....Cake that is!!!!

How to make a Roast Turkey Cake

I was really intimidated to even do one of these!! But I finally got my nerve up to try it. I've seen so many awesome roast turkey cakes in the last few years and everyone said that they were easy to do...?!!! Really?!!! Um...well, you be the judge!! I took this cake to our Thanksgiving dinner and everyone was wondering why the turkey was on the dessert table!!! That was a great compliment!!!

So to get on with how I did mine:

I first made the wings and leg bones so that they had a little time to set up. I shaped some gumpaste into a basic wing shape.

Then I used a ball tool to give the wing some bone definition.

Then flattening out the edge to make it look more bony

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For the leg bones, I put some gumpaste on a skewer, rolling to the length I wanted. I used a melon baller to round out the end of the bone. Cut the skewer to desired length also.

For the cake, I used two 12 inch round pans.

The first cut is the hardest!!! I traced a shape out with a knife before cutting. Set the two cut ends to the side and save for the legs.

Then round out the top corners and underside, until you get the shape desired.

Cut a half circle out of the pieces left of the cake to make the legs and put them on either side.

Pipe on the icing using a bag without a tip. Smooth with a spatula. Add the bones into the end of the legs. Let crust over and then smooth with a Viva paper towel, remembering to press in the underside of the turkey to give it a 3-D dimension. If you can find a paper towel with a dot pattern, use it now to give the turkey a skin-like appearance. I couldn't find a dot pattern paper towel so I used one of my plastic texture sheets that had a somewhat dot pattern. You can also use the plastic weaved bag from onions. I didn't have one so .....

At this stage of the of the cake, you can add shadow anywhere that's needed. It's probably easier if you have an air brush, but I don't have one!! I did take some black dust and put on the edges that would darken in the oven as if it here a real turkey. I used a fine mist spray bottle filled with warm water, corn syrup and brown food coloring. As you can see from the pictures, the spray would run down the side of the turkey. I guess it has that "basted" look!!

To finish, I put my turkey on a platter that was purchased at the Dollar Store! I know, I'm cheap!! I made lettuce out of fondant and veggies that where a fondant/gumpaste mix. I also put some coarse sugar sprinkles on to make it look like seasoning.

Here is a close up of the carrots, peas, sugared cranberries and yes those are supposed to be potatoes!! Some people thought they were eggs!!

Take any remaining cake scraps and cube them for the stuffing, filling the "cavity".

Below are some pictures of Jacque's turkey!!! She did such an awesome job that I have to show it off!!! i love hers!!! I will let her tell you how she did hers!!

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Rhonda, That was a fabulous step by step!! Thank you!

I am not sure I can add much to that, but I did a couple of things differently and give credit for some of the techniques to the very talented Cece Gardon, who demonstrated her roast turkey cake for the SouthEast Texas Cake Club last November.

I wish I been given the luxury of time to take "in process" pics, but it was a crazy busy week.

First, I baked mine in 3 oval pans along with two cupcakes. I stacked the ovals and sculpted it ( making the first cuts can be very intimidating!), sloping down toward the front and sides, then carved into a modified V shape in the back.

For the drumsticks, I stuffed two waffle cones approximately halfway with Rice Crispy treats. Then the cupcakes were placed in the top to round out the drumstick, and the shaped fondant for the leg bone was attached to the pointed end of the cone. I crumb coated the legs with buttercream.

I then filled and crumb coated the entire turkey body, attached the drumsticks with skewer into the body of the turkey; and covered it all with fondant, using the texturing techniques described by Rhonda . Then the wings, as created above, were positioned into place.

With the leftover cake scraps, I cut 1/2" cubes, toasted them, and mixed with vanilla custard.

The custard will help adhere the cubes to each other and to the cake.

The lettuce, cranberries and oranges were created from chocolate clay.

Using an airbrush, the turkey, fruit and veggies were colored for more texture and effect.

Notice that for my "platter", I used Mame's Autumn leaf tutorial to create leaves and placed them on a oval cake board, lightly dusted randomly with gold luster dust to give the appearance of a porcelain platter.

Photos by Rhonda Christensen and Jacque Benson

All Rights Reserved- 2009

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Making a Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT) is a method of transferring your art to your frosted cake. It's like making a buttercream “plaque” to apply to your cake. It is similar to transferring a design to a frosted cake with gel on waxed paper, and filling in the design with a star tip. It's also comparable to run-in (flood-work) sugar design work, and it will make a beautiful reproduction of your art in buttercream on small as well as very large cakes.


Things you will need:

• 1 batch buttercream Icing
  ( Use a buttercream recipe that is at least ½ butter to shortening. This seems to peel away from the wax paper more cleanly. )
• Wax Paper
• Tape
• Parchement cones or icing bags
• A Flat portable surface such as a cutting board

1. Choose a graphic image and print it out in reverse/mirror image.

2. Tape your picture down to a solid surface such as a cutting board or cookie sheet turned upside down.
3. Tape a piece of wax paper over your image.

4. Using your choice of outline color. Trace the outlines of the picture.

5. After completing outline. Begin coloring in. Think about your layers. For instance, in this picture,I started with the blue eyes and then filled in the white areas.

6. Continue with your other colors thinking about layers as you go.

7. When you have finished coloring in your graphic, smooth the back while gently pushing without blending your colors underneath. This will settle your frosting into the grooves and create a smooth finished project.

8. An outline was put around the character picture so that I could add a blue background.

9. Fill the entire circle in very carefully as to not disturb the image underneath.

10. Place in freezer on cutting board or cookie sheet for at least 90 minutes. I have left it in for as much as 24 hours.

11. While the transfer is in the freezer, ice your cake to your preference. Do any side designs if you wish.

12. Remove transfer from freezer. Immediately turn over onto iced cake.

13. Gently press transfer into icing. Not too hard!

14. Carefully remove waxed paper. Don't wait too long to do this or you may pull up icing as you pull the wax paper off.

15. Enhance transfer and finish icing cake, as you desire

Here are a few more that I have done using this method.

Tutorial and Photo by Rhonda Christensen

All Rights Reserved- 2009

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Grim Reaper

I have been asked by quite a few people on how I do my Grim Reaper. I have been asked three times now to make one. They are really fun to do and could be used for Halloween or an Over the Hill birthday.

I've never seen how others do theirs but this is what I came up with.

I first made a circle using 16 to 18 gauge wire. The size depends on how big you are going to make the body.

I then hook four wires to the circle, bring them up and twist them together. I wrap another wire around where the arms will be.

Stuff foil in and around the wire frame, making the it to the fullness desired. Bend the arms into whatever position you wish. I think next time I'll try using rice krispies on the wire.

Time to mold the skull. I took a piece of gumpaste/fondant mixture, sat in front of my computer that had a Grim Reaper or skull image and started sculpting.

When I had finished, I pushed the skull onto the neck of the body. Then make the arms and hands. I wish I would have taken pictures of that!! I just rolled out some gumpaste/fondant into a long sausage shape, flattened one end and cut fingers and a thumb out with a sharp knife. I then smoothed out the fingers with my own fingers, trying to make them look more like bones. Impress knuckles with a knife.

Let the head and arms dry for a day or two and then dust with some black dusting powder. I used black powdered food coloring mix with a tiny bit of corn starch.

Start draping black gumpaste/fondant mixture in strips over the body of the reaper. Do this until it is nice and full.

I then finish the body with two large pieces of gumpaste/fondant to cover each arm and to cover up some of the previous draping and to make it look more like a robe.

Then you can add the hood over the head. This one didn't drape like I wanted it too but you still get the idea.

You can add a skewer under your reaper to go down into a cake if you wish.

Have fun making your Reaper's!! We want to see them!!

Below are the three Reaper's that I have done.

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Tutorial and Photography by Rhonda Christensen 2009. All rights reserved.

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Making Your Own Molds

This is a very inexpensive product to use if you wish to make your own molds.

I live out in the boonies and I don't have access to cake shops out here and sometimes ordering on line can be very costly! So if you are willing to take the time to make your own, it is very well worth it!! You can buy it at Michaels.

You can go the Amazing Mold Putty's website to learn even more!! There are videos and pictures on how to do it!!

I recently entered a cake competition and these are the molds that I made for the wedding cake entry.

Working with the putty is very easy!! You just need to plan ahead and make sure you know what you want to do. Find the object that you want to use. Then you mix the two types of putty together. You have to do this quickly!! You have only a 3 minutes to mix and mold!!! Then you let it sit for 25 minutes to set up. Then your mold is ready to use!! Also make sure that if you are going to be using your molds for sugar or food, do not use it with anything else. These molds can be used with fondant, gumpaste, chocolate, isomalt or poured sugar and to make ice!! So many possibilities.

Here is the mold that I made for the buttons on the back of this wedding cake. I should have pushed the real button into the mold a little more, but it still worked.

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It was very easy making the lace embroidery for the bodice of my cake. The hard part was finding something that I liked and cutting it out!!

I used this heart shape for the brooch on the sash. I found all of my pieces at Michaels. This piece was to be used for a real necklace but I thought it was the best fit for my design. So I made the mold, but needed to cut the loop off after it was removed from the mold. I also put one on my topper.

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I used this shape to go between all of the petal indentations. I first made the heart shape and let dry. Then I used super pearl luster dust mixed with lemon extract to paint the shimmer on.

Here is a picture of the whole cake. Thanks for looking!!!

Tutorial Courtesy of Rhonda Christensen

2009

All Rights Reserved

This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.