HI Everyone,
This week I got a call to make a Foosball table for someones birthday. My first thought was; What am I Buddy Valestro? I mean he has got the entire staff with carpentry talent and everything. Then I thought about it. I needed to make a plan; to think about how this is the same/different from the hockey rink I made for someone else. I went to a very cool candy store here and found these gum balls in the shape of – of all things Foosball figures. Perfect! Only problem is they are hard as a rock. Really I have no idea how kids chew them without breaking their teeth. So on the way home I am trying to figure out how I am going to put a stick through these Foosball figures. I started thinking about making Royal Icing and using it as glue. Then I remember, my father who used to fool around with carpentry, way back when; he gave me something that looks like a screw but has a handle on it, called an awl. It is perfect for making holes in the gum figures.
So I am sitting at the work table, gum foosball figures, wood sticks to put through the foosball figures and act as the rod, and the awl. Great plan but really not so simple. I finally get a few rows of figures done, and take a break and cover the cake in green fondant. My plan was to use chocolate buttercream as thick as possible to make the sides sturdy enough to hold the foosball figures and rods. I like to make my cakes as edible as possible; but making edible sides was a little tougher than I thought. I had to constantly return the cake to the refrigerator so that the buttercream could harden and I could continue making the sides of the foosball table.
I used silver fondant and cigar cookies for the ends of the rods. At the end I think it turned out really great; and was a huge learning experience. Have you ever had a cake you had to spend more time on than you planned?
~Love From Our Kitchen to Yours