2D 2nd place
Birdsong
by Megan Matsumoto · submitted Aug 16, 2010 · 2010 contest
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Description
I have been looking forward to making a cake for this contest since I missed the deadline for last year’s. While looking through the designs, Birdsong just stood out to me. The style and colors are beautiful and simple, and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I originally wanted to make a 3D cake, but this design fit so perfectly as a 2D, so that’s what I did. :)
When planning for this cake, I really wanted to make it exactly like the design, meaning the flying bird would actually have to be “flying” and not touching the ground. I also wanted the flowers to stick out individually like real flowers. My problem was that I didn’t want to use anything that was not edible, so wires and skewers were out of the question. Figuring out how to make the gumpaste stems long and thin, while also sturdy enough to stick sideways and hold up the weight of flowers, heads of wheat, and a bird was intimidating, especially since gumpaste and I are not on the best terms. Just the planning was a challenge, and it took about a day before I could start anything.
For the cake I baked two 9x13 white almond sour cream cakes (my new favorite recipe!) and split and filled both with raspberry jam. I carved the saxophone in two pieces, cut a piece of cardboard to go under the cake, then crumb coated it with white chocolate buttercream, and covered it with fondant, which I then sponged on some darker color to give it texture. The birds and flowers were cut out of gumpaste using a very sharp exacto blade and paper templates that I first cut out. The vines were hand rolled, and meticulously weaved onto the cake (it seriously took an entire day to make the vines). The leaves were cut out in the same fashion as the flowers, though out of fondant. The birds were painted with food coloring using a toothpick, and everything was attached with gumpaste mixed with water.
No skewers or wires were used, and everything is 100% edible. It took 7 days to make, working on it all day most days (cutting out 51 flowers and 63 leaves took a lot longer than I’d thought). Gumpaste was very kind to me this time, and I had very few breakages, and everything held up surprisingly well. Although some things were very tedious (like rolling grains of wheat, and rolling vine after vine after vine) it was a super fun cake to plan out and execute. Except for a few small things like the board not being big enough, I wouldn’t change a thing about this cake. It was a thrilling experience, and I learned so much. I couldn’t be happier. The cake was absolutely delicious and devoured by my hungry family.
When planning for this cake, I really wanted to make it exactly like the design, meaning the flying bird would actually have to be “flying” and not touching the ground. I also wanted the flowers to stick out individually like real flowers. My problem was that I didn’t want to use anything that was not edible, so wires and skewers were out of the question. Figuring out how to make the gumpaste stems long and thin, while also sturdy enough to stick sideways and hold up the weight of flowers, heads of wheat, and a bird was intimidating, especially since gumpaste and I are not on the best terms. Just the planning was a challenge, and it took about a day before I could start anything.
For the cake I baked two 9x13 white almond sour cream cakes (my new favorite recipe!) and split and filled both with raspberry jam. I carved the saxophone in two pieces, cut a piece of cardboard to go under the cake, then crumb coated it with white chocolate buttercream, and covered it with fondant, which I then sponged on some darker color to give it texture. The birds and flowers were cut out of gumpaste using a very sharp exacto blade and paper templates that I first cut out. The vines were hand rolled, and meticulously weaved onto the cake (it seriously took an entire day to make the vines). The leaves were cut out in the same fashion as the flowers, though out of fondant. The birds were painted with food coloring using a toothpick, and everything was attached with gumpaste mixed with water.
No skewers or wires were used, and everything is 100% edible. It took 7 days to make, working on it all day most days (cutting out 51 flowers and 63 leaves took a lot longer than I’d thought). Gumpaste was very kind to me this time, and I had very few breakages, and everything held up surprisingly well. Although some things were very tedious (like rolling grains of wheat, and rolling vine after vine after vine) it was a super fun cake to plan out and execute. Except for a few small things like the board not being big enough, I wouldn’t change a thing about this cake. It was a thrilling experience, and I learned so much. I couldn’t be happier. The cake was absolutely delicious and devoured by my hungry family.
