The Horde

I recently developed a pretty serious addiction to all things zombie so I knew I wanted to do a zombie cake this year. I wanted to do a design that I could have a little more liberty with so I chose “The Horde” because it was a little more abstract. I had some really great pictures of the cake stand being built, but the phone I took the pictures with took a short ride with long consequences through the washing machine. So you will just have to use your imagination internet. The stand has two layers of tack board to keep the zombies upright. As far as the cake goes it was definitely a new experience in more than one realm. I have some friends who are allergic to gluten and dairy but they like treats too so I tried out a gluten and dairy-free cake. It was much less dense than a regular cake so that made for some frustration in the carving process. The raspberry and chocolate was pretty delicious though. After the cakes were filled and stacked I did a layer of frosting before carving to keep everything together because cake was so crumbly. After carving I put on a second layer of frosting. I put down some base forms for the car and covered it with a blue fondant. After carving the windows and forming the shape I added the details. I didn’t think the blue color of the fondant was quite right and wanted it to be a little rougher so I painted the car using food coloring. I formed the wheels from fondant and painted them to give them a better sheen. I also painted the head and tail lights. After getting the car done, I covered the stand in black fondant and put in the light post. I placed the car and started adding all the zombies. The zombies were made using chocolate and hockey player forms. Turns out when hockey players are a little roughed up and melted they look surprisingly like zombies. After placing all the zombies I put the “last man standing” on top of the car. He was shaped using a wire base and fondant. I wanted him to stand apart from the faceless crowd so I gave him more detail and expression. If he is going down, he is taking as many of those buggers with him as possible! After placing him I added the final detail, a light. The light was pretty great. I didn’t get a picture of it but the light also had a flashing option that went from blue to red. It looked more like a zombie disco party than a final stand from a mindless mass ? The cake turned out better than expected considering the bumps along the way. Gluten-free zombie fun was had by all!