Man Up

For my second entry I chose the "Man Up" design because it was funny and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and use it for my boyfriend's brother's birthday cake.

I baked a "manly" Bourbon-chocolate cake about a week ahead of time and put it in the freezer until I had some decorating time. For the unicorn I started off with some rice cereal treats and molded a general dead unicorn-ish shape, which I covered in modeling chocolate. As it is pretty hot in Wisconsin right now I added bamboo skewers for supports: one in each leg.

When I had the basic unicorn done I started on Mr. Manly Man. I knew with the position of the arms I would need some extra support, so I used more bamboo skewers with some floral wire. I covered this again in rice cereal and then modeling chocolate.

Next for some manly chest and pit hair. I used pieces of modeling chocolate, which I attached and then snipped with a scissors to get a nice feathered windblown look:)

Most of the accents and details are modeling chocolate, but I used melted chocolate for the chainsaw blades, and gumpaste for the rainbow blood puddle and glass lenses, as it accepts food color much better than modeling chocolate.

I covered the cake in a dark chocolate ganache and plopped the whole thing on top. I really enjoyed this cake, although I can see know why many people don't do modeling chocolate work in the summer. The cake caused a few double takes at the party, which although it took place on the brother's birthday, was actually a first birthday party for his one-year old daughter. I also made her a "Curious Buddies" cake, and the juxtaposition of the two cakes on the dessert table was pretty funny (At least I thought so)