30 Fraggle Faces

I am just so excited by how well this cake turned out! Somehow a comedy of errors of technical difficulties managed to result in the best cake I’ve ever made.

It all started with choosing the design. I had two I really liked and I picked the safer one, the one I thought I could replicate the best, bookmarked it (because my printer wasn’t working), and started making a game plan. But when I tried to open the page, the bookmark wasn’t there anymore. I scrolled through Threadless for a while, but I still couldn’t find it! So I took it as a sign I should try my other design. I’ve eyed the Fraggle photo for a while (hello, Fraggles!), but I’ve never really done sculpting before (I kind of tried with my other Threadcake entry this year, but they were more flat with shading, than sculpted). I decided to try one Fraggle, and if it turned out, I’d keep going. If not, I’d try harder to find my other design. I was so convinced it wouldn’t work I didn’t even bother taking progress photos. But by some miracle it worked! I kept going.

There was definitely a learning curve as I figured out a better way to outline (rolling the fondant into “snakes” rather than placing them on a flat piece), and got the hang of the basic shapes.

Finally I had all the Fraggles, Gorg, and other creatures sculpted…except Doc. Because he’s not a cartoony puppet (okay, the picture of him kind of is) but a real, live, person out of my childhood, and what if I made him look terrible? But I had to try, so I did, and I think he looks okay?

Then it was time to bake. I originally wanted to do the Fraggles as cupcake toppers, but my husband convinced me they’d look better on a flat cake. They were so big I had to make two sheet cakes – cue tech disaster #2: The pans warped in the oven making wonky cakes which then burned black on the bottom (all over, not just the thin sides). I had to soak the cake out of the pans! (Looking back, maybe belting out “Let it burn” along with the Buffy musical episode while they cooked was not the best choice.)

So it was back to the original plan. I cut out 30 squares of black fondant, and let them dry while I baked 30 chocolate cupcakes (after running to the store for more ingredients) I frosted most of them with fudgy chocolate frosting, but added peppermint flavouring to the rest, because the only thing better than double chocolate is mint chocolate.

Then I carefully attached each character to a square, adding in final details where needed (mostly Doozer antennae). Finally, I set each square carefully on top of a cupcake and snapped my photos. (And, yes, I realize this makes my entry a dreaded Cupcake Cake–patooie!—but since I haven’t tried to make a shape out of it, or covered it in ridiculous amounts of frosting, I hope it’s still considered acceptable).

This is the first time it’s actually saddened me to eat a cake I’ve made. Maybe it was the time I put into it (about 50 hours!) or the cute factor, or the fact that honestly this is the best cake I’ve ever made, but I teared up a little biting into Sprocket. But then the mint-chocolatey yumminess hit my tongue and made up for it. (However, I may need to invest in some modelling clay to make more permanent versions for my desk.)