lynndaviscakes

When I was first learnng how to do cakes one of my co-workers came into my office one day and asked if I could do an Xbox for her son’s birthday.  My first response was what is an Xbox?  This was met with laughter.  She left and came back a short time later with a picture of the Xbox and controller.  It didn’t look that hard so I said I would try and do the controller first and bring it in the next day to see if she said liked it.

Fondant is a sugary dough that is used to cover cakes.  You will mainly see this on wedding cakes.  I had used fondant in my classes to make animals that we put on cupcakes but I had no experience in actually covering a cake.  How hard could that be??  I baked a small cake and cut it to the general shape of the controller and covered it with buttercream icing.  Next step was to color the fondant black.  I must have used ½ a jar of black gel food coloring and I could make was a medium gray and turned my hands purple.  On the cake shows they show how you can airbrush fondant.  My husband had tried to teach me this but all I achieved was painting the cabinets and counter tops.  The only thing left was to paint the fondant.  Using some clear vanilla extract and the black gel food coloring the controller was painted in now time flat!  The rest was just piping and I used mini M&M candy for the buttons.  I rolled out a long black rope for the cord and I was finished.  I was very proud to my creation so when the next morning I had one of my friend walk into my office and asked me why I had made a dead rat, my heart sank.  The next two who came into my office also agreed it did look like a dead rat.  The lady I was doing this for came in and did let everyone know that is what a controller looks like.  She was being very nice but I could tell she wasn’t very happy about it.  So that afternoon after work I started over and this time when I walked in with the completed cake and controller she loved it.

There is nothing better for boys of all ages then a construction site cake.  This is without a doubt the easiest cake to make.  When you level your cake put the pieces you had left over and build up one side and frost with tan icing.  To make dirt take some Nilla Wafers put them in a ziploc baggie and pound them into nothing.  Sprinkle the dirt over the icing while it is still moist.  The rock I made out of little pieces of Tootsie Rolls.  Add some little construction vehicles and you are finished.

For that superman or super father who always bails you out this cake is easy to do.  This is a 1/2 sheet cake that I made as a grooms cake for my daughters best friend’s wedding.  The suit and tie are fondant and the shirt is buttercream.  To jazz it up I painted Wilton’s black sparkle gel on the suit jacket.  The flowers on the jacket are also out of fondant to match the bride bouquet.