3D 5th place 2
The Friendly Spirit
by rebecca mcdowell @beccaharley · submitted Jul 21, 2011 · 2011 contest
1 / 82
Description
Yey, my second entry!
So this time i went for the 3D approach and after much scanning of the bank of awesome designs, i decided on The Friendly Spirit. I love this design, i love its homage to a certain Totoro and thought it would be an interesting one to do.
I started baking, stacking and carving on a Saturday, and decorated sporadicly till the Wednesday, in total it probably took about 38-40 hours.
Because of the height of it i decided to pop a doweling rod through the centre to stop any wobbles but hoped that would be the only support needed.
Once i covered it with marzipan i used the leftover marzipan to give some shape to the 'belly' area and then put patches of green fondant and grey fondant where needed.
To get the moss effect over the surface, i mixed green colour powder with ground almonds, making two different shades. I then brushed vodka over the surface and got messy sticking the ground almond to the surface.
All the leaves and vines are made from gum paste which i then brushed green with powder.
I used royal icing to pipe the vines at the front, which i attached to the cake as late as possible due to their delicate nature.
The biggest headache was supplied by The Tree! I really wanted to try and do it with no non edible supports, I made the main trunk out of gum paste and left it to dry for 2 days, but once attached, it wasn't long until a crack appeared and it broke in half.
I tried fixing it with royal icing but it was just too top heavy so i had to relent and use a toothpick to help support it at the top.
I knew it wouldn't hold the tree with the owl so the next piece of support i had to use was a second doweling rod through the cake, to hold up the top part of the tree. I made that part out of rice crispie mix to make it as light as possible.
I made a quick backdrop putting chalk to paper to add to the effect and finished off by adding the piped plants at the front.
I'm pretty pleased with it, though the ground almonds worked well as moss, it was a pain to get anything to stick to it and next time i would maybe use wire stems for the leaves for a slightly more precise way of positioning them.
As always, it was really fun cutting into it and i have eaten too much cake and now feel sick. :p
So this time i went for the 3D approach and after much scanning of the bank of awesome designs, i decided on The Friendly Spirit. I love this design, i love its homage to a certain Totoro and thought it would be an interesting one to do.
I started baking, stacking and carving on a Saturday, and decorated sporadicly till the Wednesday, in total it probably took about 38-40 hours.
Because of the height of it i decided to pop a doweling rod through the centre to stop any wobbles but hoped that would be the only support needed.
Once i covered it with marzipan i used the leftover marzipan to give some shape to the 'belly' area and then put patches of green fondant and grey fondant where needed.
To get the moss effect over the surface, i mixed green colour powder with ground almonds, making two different shades. I then brushed vodka over the surface and got messy sticking the ground almond to the surface.
All the leaves and vines are made from gum paste which i then brushed green with powder.
I used royal icing to pipe the vines at the front, which i attached to the cake as late as possible due to their delicate nature.
The biggest headache was supplied by The Tree! I really wanted to try and do it with no non edible supports, I made the main trunk out of gum paste and left it to dry for 2 days, but once attached, it wasn't long until a crack appeared and it broke in half.
I tried fixing it with royal icing but it was just too top heavy so i had to relent and use a toothpick to help support it at the top.
I knew it wouldn't hold the tree with the owl so the next piece of support i had to use was a second doweling rod through the cake, to hold up the top part of the tree. I made that part out of rice crispie mix to make it as light as possible.
I made a quick backdrop putting chalk to paper to add to the effect and finished off by adding the piped plants at the front.
I'm pretty pleased with it, though the ground almonds worked well as moss, it was a pain to get anything to stick to it and next time i would maybe use wire stems for the leaves for a slightly more precise way of positioning them.
As always, it was really fun cutting into it and i have eaten too much cake and now feel sick. :p
