It's All in the Details!

I have seen some cake boards with a lined groove in them and have been trying to figure out how they made them.  So here's my version of it.

  I first covered my cake board with fondant.  This was a 16 inch wide 1/2 inch particle board.

Trim off excess.

Find the middle of board.  Using a very large skewer, I just pressed it into the fondant, going all the way around.  It was kind of hard to keep it centered.

The middle doesn't look great, but it was going to be covered anyway!  I let it dry for a few days before adding any cake.

I then made flip flops.  I just cut a shoe shape, added the little flowers and pressed a patterned mat on the top.

I then poked the holes, rolled out a strip of fondant/gum paste and gave it some stitching.  I folded it in half and rounded the middle between my fingers a bit and put it in the first hole at the toe of the flip flop.

Then take some plastic wrap and put on the flip flop.  Take the ends of the straps over the plastic wrap and break the excess strap off where the other holes are, rounding the ends a little to fit into the hole.  I added the little flower in the middle just for and extra touch.  Let dry for a few days.

When it was time to make the chocolate cake, I used a 12" x 18" pan to bake the cake.  I cut it into fourths and stacked with cookies and cream filling in between the layers.  The top half was carved to make it rounded and the sides where angled some.  Pink fondant covered the whole cake.  White fondant was added over the pink and the stitching effect was used on the edges and straps.  I made a simple cord strap to the purse. 

I'm also testing products for Melissa Dotson over at Decorate the Cake.  I used her Studded Oval Buckle to make the buckle on this purse.  The buckle was made from gum paste and I let it dry for a few days.  Silver luster dust was then painted on it.  The purse strap was threaded through the buckle.

You can find the buckle on her site here.
 

I also used Melissa's 5 Petal Blossom mold.  They are really quick and easy to make.  Just dust a little cornstarch or luster dust onto the mold, add the gum paste or fondant, press the molds together and voila!  Easy peasy!!

You can find this mold here.

This gift bag was made from another 12" x 18" pan cut in half and layered with filling.  It's covered with purple fondant and stamped with a regular stamp using a deeper purple luster dust and lemon extract.

Nail polish bottle is all gum paste painted with sparkle dust on the bottom and luster dust on top.

This was a fun cake to make!!

Copyright 2011- Rhonda Christensen
PHotography by Rhonda Christensen 2011-all rights reserved
This material may not be republished or reproduced in any manner without the expressed permission of the author.

Footprints in the Sand

This cake is a walk on the beach, so to speak!

Ingredients

Cake Covered in Ivory Fondant

Granulated Sugar

Demera Sugar

ECG Frosted Lemon Luster Dust

ECG Sombrero Luster Dust

Super Pearl Dust, Food Grade

small amount of ivory fondant

Small amounts of  bright blue, hot pink and orange gumpaste

Piping Gel

Tools

Card Stock

Scissors

SugarCraft Gun with smallest Cord disk

Toothpick

GumGlue

Parchment Paper

Fondant Roller

PME wheel Cutter

 Flat Artist Brush

Impression Mats
Plastic Piping Bag

Instructions

Flip-Flops

1. Cut out a pattern using cardstock. The pattern is about 1" long.

2. Roll out bright blue gumpaste very thin. Place your flip-flops pattern over gumpaste. Using a PME wheel cutter, cut around pattern to create sole of flip-flops . Turn pattern over and cut another sole.

3. Place a wave pattern impression mat over the soles. Gently impress pattern onto the tops of soles. Cover and set aside.

4. Roll out a hot pink gumpaste. Using #12 piping tip, cut two circles. Make indentions using a leather punch or toothpick.

5. Roll out a bit more blue and cut two dot using the tip of #6 piping tip. Moisten the center of the pink with a bit of gumglue and place the blue dot in the center, as shown.

6. Using a SugarCraft Clay gun and the smallest cord disk, make an orange cord.

Cut into two ½” lengths. Pinch the center together.

7. Using toothpick, Make an indention in the soles of the blue gumpaste, the lightly moisten the indentions with gumglue.

Place the pinched center of the cord at the top of the sole, and the ends at the sides.

8. Place pink flower at the top of flip-flops, attaching with gumglue. Cover to protect and set aside.

Footprints

1. Using the cardstock flipflop pattern, cut 8 footprints out of parchment paper.

2. Roll ivory gumpaste very thin. Place 6 of the parchment patterns over the gumpaste, and cut using the PME wheel cutter.

3. Mix a small amount of ECG Frosted Lemon and Sombrero luster dusts together and dry brush over each gumpaste footprint.

4. Place an impression mat over the gumpaste and gently press.

5. Cover to protect and set aside.

Sandy Beach Cake

1. Mix 1 cup granulated sugar with ½ tsp ECG Frosted Lemon , ½ tsp Sombrero Luster Dusts, ¼ tsp. super Pearl dust. Add ¼ cup demera sugar. Mix well and place into Plastic Piping Bag.

2. Cover Cake with Ivory Fondant.

3. Brust fondant with Piping Gel.

4. Place the 8 parchment footprint pattern over piping gel, as if walking up side of cake.*

5. Place cake inside 14” Cake Pan to catch unused sugar. Cut end from piping bag and began covering cake with sugar in uniform style until the cake is completely covered.

6. Remove the parchment patterns.

7. Place the 6 footprints over the exposed piping gel, then place the flip flops over the last two footprints at top, as shown.

8. Sprinkle more sugar around the top of the cake.

Remember the beachy topper tutorial? Now you have the perfect cake for the Beach Themed topper. Place on top of cake with a little sugar sand spilling out of sand pail.

The sugar will sparkle just like sunlit sand.

Here is a picture of a Fun in the Sun cake that was created by three artists!

Photo by Sherilyn Vineyard-2010

I had the privilege of demonstrating this as the top tier of a three tiered cake. The middle tier was created by the very talented Sherilyn Vineyard; and the bottom tier and cake board by the uber creative Sylvia Wilson. We all built our tiers separately, then assembled them at a Day of Sharing. We were thrilled with the way it all came together!

Hope you have Fun creating your own Summer Fun Cake!!

* this tutorial is for one side of cake only. If you want to repeat the pattern on the back side of cake, you will need to make two pair of flip-flops and 12 footprints.

Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson
Copyright 2010-All rights reserved

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