3D 1
Celestial Cephalopod
by Jay Tradup · submitted Nov 4, 2014 · 2014 contest
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Description
This masterpiece was cretaed by Elizabeth Tradup. This was one of the very first designs I saw when I started searching for a design to replicate for this years contest. I thought it looked like a really fun challenge. I love things with intricate details and interesting textures.
I first started by creating the planet. It is made out of vanilla almond chiffon cake that I baked in a bowl to create the round shape. This saved me from having to do all that cutting and shaping later, and believe me, if you think its hard to draw a perfect circle, its ever harder to cut one! I decided that since the cake was so much thicker in the middle than it is when it bakes in a regular pan that I would wrap the outside in aluminum foil to prevent the outer layer of cake from baking too quickly. Once the cake was baked, I put both layers together with vanilla orange buttercream between each layer. I like a lot of frosting so I cut each bowl shape in half and filled inbetween each layer as well as between the two bowl shapes. I then cut away a few of the edges and threw a nice thick layer of that delicious buttercream around the entire sphere. Once that was done, it took some time and patience and several smoothing tools, but it was time for fondant. I covered the globe in white fondant and painted it with an aray of edible airbrush inks. I used several different sized brushes and q-tips to achieve the effect. While working on the planet, I didnt want the cake to be out too long and become soft so I would occasionally put it back in the refigerator and then begin working on the other element to this design: The rockin octopus!!
For the focal point of this piece, the octopus, I decided it might just be a little too difficult (and heavy) to make this thing out of cake so I chose to make the head and "bust", if you will, out of rice cereal treats. I made the legs, tenticle, skin and eyes out of fondant. I began "gluing" the legs to the rice cereal treats with water, which is usually all it needs but found that they were a bit heavy and also a little too brittle to work with once they dried. That in mind, I felt I better support them, before I turned this octopus into a quadropus! I used wire that I coiled into the propper leg shapes and pressed the fondant around the wire to keep it from being seen. Then I stuck the ends of the wire into the rice cereal treat body. This created a sort of bare muscle structure that I could then add a thin layer of fondant to in order to give the appearance of skin. To achieve the proper shape I wedged foil under some of the legs to hold them up while they dried and I shaped the octopus around a bowl so that it would sit ontop of the cake properly. Then I used I small round piping tip and pressed it into a rope of fondant and poked out the little pieces to make a whole bunch of perfect little tiny circles to use as the suction cups on the tenticles. I used water to adhere them to the legs. I used this same little piping tip to add texture to the skin as well. I just pressed it into the fondant skin lightly and it gave the perfect texture to really make this little guy look life-like. Once the entire octopus structure was dry, I began painting it with black and white edible airbrush inks. I first sprayed a coat of gray down over the whole body. Then I used black around the legs for shadows. To blend the areas together, it was back to the q-tip method. To get the highlighs to pop, more q-tips! I used a q-tip with a little vodka on the end to lift some of the color out of the lighter areas. With both the planet and the octopus finished it was time to put the two together. Once I situated the octopus properly atop the cake I added some shaddows under the legs and aroung the outer edges of the planet using black edible airbrush ink. I achieved this awesome photograph in part because of my genius husband. He made a light box specifically for this contest. He took a cardboard box and put black fabric over one side of it and then poked wholes in it. To make the stars look lit up he hung a light on the inside of the box. That clever man made it look like the cake is floating in mid air!!!
This next part was sad....we had to cut it. The eating part made it worth it though! It was delicious! Messy and turned our teeth funny colors, but delicious!
I first started by creating the planet. It is made out of vanilla almond chiffon cake that I baked in a bowl to create the round shape. This saved me from having to do all that cutting and shaping later, and believe me, if you think its hard to draw a perfect circle, its ever harder to cut one! I decided that since the cake was so much thicker in the middle than it is when it bakes in a regular pan that I would wrap the outside in aluminum foil to prevent the outer layer of cake from baking too quickly. Once the cake was baked, I put both layers together with vanilla orange buttercream between each layer. I like a lot of frosting so I cut each bowl shape in half and filled inbetween each layer as well as between the two bowl shapes. I then cut away a few of the edges and threw a nice thick layer of that delicious buttercream around the entire sphere. Once that was done, it took some time and patience and several smoothing tools, but it was time for fondant. I covered the globe in white fondant and painted it with an aray of edible airbrush inks. I used several different sized brushes and q-tips to achieve the effect. While working on the planet, I didnt want the cake to be out too long and become soft so I would occasionally put it back in the refigerator and then begin working on the other element to this design: The rockin octopus!!
For the focal point of this piece, the octopus, I decided it might just be a little too difficult (and heavy) to make this thing out of cake so I chose to make the head and "bust", if you will, out of rice cereal treats. I made the legs, tenticle, skin and eyes out of fondant. I began "gluing" the legs to the rice cereal treats with water, which is usually all it needs but found that they were a bit heavy and also a little too brittle to work with once they dried. That in mind, I felt I better support them, before I turned this octopus into a quadropus! I used wire that I coiled into the propper leg shapes and pressed the fondant around the wire to keep it from being seen. Then I stuck the ends of the wire into the rice cereal treat body. This created a sort of bare muscle structure that I could then add a thin layer of fondant to in order to give the appearance of skin. To achieve the proper shape I wedged foil under some of the legs to hold them up while they dried and I shaped the octopus around a bowl so that it would sit ontop of the cake properly. Then I used I small round piping tip and pressed it into a rope of fondant and poked out the little pieces to make a whole bunch of perfect little tiny circles to use as the suction cups on the tenticles. I used water to adhere them to the legs. I used this same little piping tip to add texture to the skin as well. I just pressed it into the fondant skin lightly and it gave the perfect texture to really make this little guy look life-like. Once the entire octopus structure was dry, I began painting it with black and white edible airbrush inks. I first sprayed a coat of gray down over the whole body. Then I used black around the legs for shadows. To blend the areas together, it was back to the q-tip method. To get the highlighs to pop, more q-tips! I used a q-tip with a little vodka on the end to lift some of the color out of the lighter areas. With both the planet and the octopus finished it was time to put the two together. Once I situated the octopus properly atop the cake I added some shaddows under the legs and aroung the outer edges of the planet using black edible airbrush ink. I achieved this awesome photograph in part because of my genius husband. He made a light box specifically for this contest. He took a cardboard box and put black fabric over one side of it and then poked wholes in it. To make the stars look lit up he hung a light on the inside of the box. That clever man made it look like the cake is floating in mid air!!!
This next part was sad....we had to cut it. The eating part made it worth it though! It was delicious! Messy and turned our teeth funny colors, but delicious!
