Sea Beard

Of course I had to choose Sea Beard. I mean, come on. The guy not only has an awesome beard, but it's made of OCEAN. Need I say more?

Due to a summertime-baking-ban on my house, I made this entire cake at my friend Jessica’s house. The cake itself is vanilla, made from a delicious scratch recipe I've been using for a while. The layers were stacked, carved a bit, covered with white buttercream frosting and white marshmallow fondant with marshmallow fondant waves individually rolled and coiled all around the bottom. The whole thing was then painted with blue and green vodka-thinned food gels.

I carved the face (after which I began referring to him as 'Beardy') out of a big block o' rice crispies, smoothed it out with buttercream and covered the face with gel-tinted gum paste. Details were painted on with vodka-thinned coloring gels, and then the rest of his hair and mustache were added with blue/green royal icing for texture. I blended the hair into the waves with a damp paint brush to try and make the fade as smooth as possible. The boat, masts and sails, were made entirely out of gum paste and royal icing.

Everything about this cake is edible. Even the supports, though not many people wish to eat cardboard. I never actually timed myself throughout the whole process but I'm assuming it took a little bit over one day, spread over an entire weekend, to complete. Several breaks were had of course, for food, sleep, a brief trip to the local farmer's market for more food, a couple rounds of Rock Band, and some other games once more people showed up for the finish of Beardy.

The only part that had me nearing tears of frustration was dear Beardy's wispy flyaway hairs. Those I ended up piping out on some wax paper with royal icing, letting them dry over night then carefully peeling them off the next morning and attaching them with more royal icing. The wispies were really delicate and I broke nearly two-thirds trying to attach a sufficient amount, but it turned out in the end. Not ten minutes after I finished and the camera snapped the last 'completed product' picture did Jessica hand me a knife and with only slight hesitation, I stabbed poor Beardy. Right in the back. And we ate the pieces with strawberries. It may have been murder, but it was darn delicious.