3D
Impossible Love
by Layla Cantlebary @laylagalise · submitted Jul 21, 2009 · 2009 contest
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Description
I came up with a few design ideas, but decided (insanely) to make three cakes. I went on vacation for a week and a half, came back and suddenly there were tons of amazing entries. Intimidated though I was, I decided to go ahead and enter. Hopefully, what I lack in technical proficiency I'll make up for with cleverness. This design, like my others, is inspired by the original shirt design. So, it’s not the original design in cake (I didn’t feel like I could live up to the shirt designs). “Impossible Love” is one of my favorite Threadless designs, so I was excited to take it on. Since this is a cake-decorating contest, I wanted to showcase the impossible love between a cake and a knife.
I started on a Wednesday and finished on Sunday. Needless to say, I'm done baking cakes for a while. I used boxed cake mixes, icing and pre-made gumpaste (but no gumpaste for this cake). I did make my own vanilla fondant (and used eight pounds of powdered sugar). I made all the fondant on Wednesday since it has to rest for 12 hours and wrapped each batch up individually in plastic wrap. Then, Thursday night and early Friday morning I made all the cakes (11 boxes!). After the cake layers were made and cooled completely, I leveled them and iced the cake with buttercream icing. Then I put the cake in fridge so the icing could firm up while I made elements out of gumpaste. I used yellow gumpaste to make the sign and base, pink gumpaste to make the hearts, and gray gumpaste (with edible Wilton silver dust) to make the knife. I made the knife handle out of blue fondant and used a bamboo skewer, cut in half, to stabilize the knife handle and sandwich the silver knife handle. I formed three hearts out of pink gumpaste and put them each on a thin wire. I made turquoise royal icing and, after the gumpaste was dry, piped “impossible love” onto the sign. As the gumpaste dried, I rolled out some white fondant and covered the small cake. Then I colored some fondant orange and, using a pan, created a wavy-edged circle for the top of the cake. I used a paintbrush to slightly wet the top of the white fondant so the orange fondant would stick better. After putting the orange circle on top of the cake, I rolled out the rest of the orange fondant and cut out a long wavy line. I applied the line to the cake in the same manner I applied the orange circle. I dusted off any excess powdered sugar from the cake, then placed it, the knife and the sign on the cakeboard. I cut into the cake and my friend (and photographer) Erin ate a piece. It was a lemon cake with buttercream icing and vanilla fondant—very tasty!
I started on a Wednesday and finished on Sunday. Needless to say, I'm done baking cakes for a while. I used boxed cake mixes, icing and pre-made gumpaste (but no gumpaste for this cake). I did make my own vanilla fondant (and used eight pounds of powdered sugar). I made all the fondant on Wednesday since it has to rest for 12 hours and wrapped each batch up individually in plastic wrap. Then, Thursday night and early Friday morning I made all the cakes (11 boxes!). After the cake layers were made and cooled completely, I leveled them and iced the cake with buttercream icing. Then I put the cake in fridge so the icing could firm up while I made elements out of gumpaste. I used yellow gumpaste to make the sign and base, pink gumpaste to make the hearts, and gray gumpaste (with edible Wilton silver dust) to make the knife. I made the knife handle out of blue fondant and used a bamboo skewer, cut in half, to stabilize the knife handle and sandwich the silver knife handle. I formed three hearts out of pink gumpaste and put them each on a thin wire. I made turquoise royal icing and, after the gumpaste was dry, piped “impossible love” onto the sign. As the gumpaste dried, I rolled out some white fondant and covered the small cake. Then I colored some fondant orange and, using a pan, created a wavy-edged circle for the top of the cake. I used a paintbrush to slightly wet the top of the white fondant so the orange fondant would stick better. After putting the orange circle on top of the cake, I rolled out the rest of the orange fondant and cut out a long wavy line. I applied the line to the cake in the same manner I applied the orange circle. I dusted off any excess powdered sugar from the cake, then placed it, the knife and the sign on the cakeboard. I cut into the cake and my friend (and photographer) Erin ate a piece. It was a lemon cake with buttercream icing and vanilla fondant—very tasty!
