Hi Everyone,
One of the aspects I love most about being a cake decorator is the challenge of a new cake. So when someone called up and asked if I could make a car I said sure. Now I know when Buddy Valestro made his car wash cake he had a big staff, and our operation is a little smaller, but I was confident we’d figure it out.
I asked local cake decorating friends for ideas, but none of them had ever made a car cake. So I turned to Google and found a class on Craftsy.com, CLASSIC CARS: TIMELESS TECHNIQUES taught by MIKE McCAREY. They had a fabulous class. Well we all know how wonderfully simple things can seem when watching an expert do it.
I went on line and found the blue prints for the 2003 Lexus I was making, printed them out and enlarged them 350%. I now had a front, back and side view of the car. I started with making the wheels, they were the exact size and then made the Lexus logo on 2 wheels.
One of the main things that they wanted on the car were the bumper stickers. I decided printing them on edible paper would be the perfect way to put them on. I knew in my mind and from photos of the car exactly how it should look. Getting the bumper stickers small enough to fit on the bumper and still be clear enough to see was not so simple; they had to be scaled down way more than I first thought.
Finally got the bumper stickers printed.
I baked and stacked 4 layers of cake and put the blue print against the cake so I could carve it out scaled correctly. After icing the cake numerous times to get it nice and smooth I covered it in fondant. I had mixed a black and blue that turned into a fabulous navy and was perfect for the car.
In my brilliance I decided to make the car shine, but I do not own a steamer, so I decided to use a glaze type product I had recently bought. It was not looking great- but I thought if it set it would look better. So I decided to work on the windows and windshield. Now this Craftsy class car did not have windows attached to the car- so it was sort of my best guess as to how to do this. I decided Isomalt would be best. I used the blue print and cut out the space for the windshield and windows. Then marked it on a paper made a border with fondant which would act as the rim of the windows, and poured the Isomalt in.
I used the same cut out to cut out the windows and windshield. But the windshield I did not realize was actually much bigger, and after the Isomalt windows dried they did not fit properly into the space I had cut out. I ended up breaking a window. And after several attempts and burning the last of the Isomalt at 4 am decided to go to bed.
When I woke up the car looked like it had gone through a rainstorm. OH NO! What was I going to do now?
Only one choice peel off the fondant and start all over. I sent my assistant to go get more Isomalt and I started again. I cut the windows a little bigger. They fit better, I put on the back lights and front lights, and made the grid, I “paved” the board, and put the cake on top. The bumper stickers and license plate were perfect. I was very excited the car really good and we finished in time to send it off.
As my assistant pointed out this project was much harder than a wedding cake.
Tell us about a project you have done that did not quiet turn out the way you expected.
~Love From Our Kitchen to Yours