Let s Have a Picnic

When I was in High School Mrs.Higgenbotham told me about fondant, and the wonders one can make with this "frosting that you can roll out". I was so narrow minded and such a flavor snob I refused to take her advice. If only I had....I would have been years ahead of the trend. I still have a flavor issue with fondant. I have a very difficult time wrapping my head around a frosting that you chew. Or it chews you.

Speaking of choices, this design is so uber cute! I love that King Kong and Godzilla are having a lovely picnic lunch, despite the chaos around them that they have caused. I can almost hear them sheepishly apologize with their heads bowed, and wringing their hands: "sorry," they would say. As soon as I viewed this design amongst the hundreds of others, I fell in love with these monster cuties. I even love the little detail that King Kong is eating with chopsticks, and Godzilla has a hamburger--they are being very Multi-cultural on their picnic. Any teacher of art can tell you the benefits of multi-cultural affairs!

First I made the cake; banana cake with chocolate ganache filling, vanilla frosting to coat. Despite my dislike of fondant, I made homemade marshmallow fondant for the details, coating the monsters, and the background. After chilling the frosting on the cake, I made a green "grassy" area for the picnic, and placed it on top of the cake.

Secondly I made cupcakes for the monsters. Pound cake is a bit more sturdy than other types of cake, so this is what the flavor is. I started King Kong and Godzilla by stacking a half cucpake atop a full cupcake. I then created frosting blobs. These were then coated with fondant-yay, and the arms and legs and faces were added to them. In this first stage of doneness the monsters are so adorable. I did not want to add the details, and just keep them adorable.

I added the details anyway. King Kong continued to stay uber cute with his stylized fur piped on. Godzilla, however, looked like he was wearing a lacy dress inherited from his Grandmother (no offense, grandmothers). So Godzilla had to be fixed. This resulted in a "Cakewreck" Godzilla (go to the Blog page! It is amazing!). Godzilla got cleaned up, and the scales were painted back on. This made all the cuteness difference in the world.

After finishing the monsters, I made the picnic parts; the picnic cloth, the plates, the tea pot, the basket, the food.

Then I made the background buildings. I rolled out black fondant, cut the building shapes, and let them dry out. Then I used frosting to pipe in the windows, building details, and the fire at the top of the buildings. This design is so cute even the fire is adorable! Cute fire! Who has heard of that!

Finally I placed all the pieces and parts on to the cake top. And that finished it! Though some of the buildings did not make it on the the final cake due to lack of room.

The cake was taken to the park as part of a picnic. I loved the idea of having a picnic with a cake showing cute monsters having a picnic. A twofer picnic! We enjoyed the Henderson Symphony Orchestra and cake. It was awesome! I think the banana cake and chocolate ganache paring was delicious. My friends agree with me (if I do say so myself).