Instant Pool Party

The "Instant Pool Party" t-shirt looked like a really fun cake challenge. The artist mentioned that his inspiration was depth of field. I wanted to try to capture his inspiration in cake. It didn't come together "instantly", since I was only able to work on the cake during the evenings after work, but I was lucky enough that my wonderful beyond measure husband was willing to help me out. I started on Monday by making the gum paste from a store-bought mix. Tuesday, the husband rolled out the gum paste, and I measured and cut out the Polaroid photo border. I also molded the floatie ring, and we both worked on the beach ball and the floatie head. Wednesday, I painted the gum paste pieces with water-thinned white decorator icing to smooth out any imperfections. I also painted the base coat of the floatie with thinned red decorator icing, and my husband and I both tackled the beach ball stripes. Thursday, I baked the white cake and cut out the area for the pool. I also colored some gum paste gray with gel icing color, and cut out the bottom of the pool. Friday morning, I colored the fondant blue for the covering with gel icing color. Friday night, the husband and I went on the search for the Holy Grail, practically, as we went to four different stores looking for light corn syrup for the sugar glass. That pretty much killed that evening. I did manage to paint another coat of red on the floatie and beach ball, and I built the cake and filled the layers with buttercream. Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to make the sugar glass. I used sugar, light corn syrup, cream of tartar, water, and blue food coloring, which turned the glass a beautifully wrecktastic shade of algae green. Take two was the same recipe, sans food coloring, and added a little icing color to the clear glass as it cooled. I also dropped the beach ball into the glass, which was molded in aluminum foil to create ripples beneath the surface. After the glass cooled completely, the surface was painted with water-thinned icing color to create a third color layer for depth. The entire cake and all tools were then loaded into the car and driven over to my best friend's house so we could finish both our cakes (yes, she's entering, too) and have a little tasting party. Once there, I iced the cake in buttercream, rolled out the fondant, and covered the cake. My lovely husband added the detail to the floatie. The pool bottom was attached with decorator icing during the building process, but the pool was set in only after the fondant was laid over the cake, then was edged in white decorator icing to smooth the rough edges and mimic concrete. Next, the Polaroid frame (remember that? It's been a while!) was attached with decorator icing, and the floatie was placed and attached similarly. As a last minute addition, the title of the piece was written in yellow decorator icing on a scrap of fondant and attached to the frame. Then we debated on adding a shark fin to the pool for a couple of fun shots, but decided against it and just cut the cake and enjoyed!