Thursday, June 30, 2011

I'm Puzzled...

If you were wondering what I've been up to this week, well I was really busy with... wedding cakes and a few birthday cakes. (no surprise there)

I wanted to let you have a sneak peak at a rather special cake I'm working on for Friday

The bride and groom love solving puzzles, so their brother (everyone needs such a brother!) ordered an unusuall wedding cake for them, as a wedding gift.

The top tier will look like a starry night- puzzle box opened and the pieces spilling out.
so far I made the puzzle pieces and hand painted them.
The brides brother said that they actually have a starry night puzzle they are currently working on. (it's one of Van Gouch's paintings)


Starry night

The cakes are in the oven, and the edibale page with the starry night drawing is printed to the exact size to fit the cake.

To achieve the effect of the pieces falling out, the top layer will be set on pillars, and some pieces will be attached to one of the pillars, to the cake sides and the cake base.

I really wanted the puzzle pieces to look real, so I took a couple of real puzzle pieces and traced them on paper, I copied them 3D to create my own set of puzzle cutters and the result is great. They really look like puzzle pieces.

Puzzle cutters I custom made for this cake from a tin box of coco powder

Another thing I was worried about (but really happy about now), is the pieces color. 
I don't mean the front; i'm talking about the sides and back. I know the back will only be seen if someone looks at the cake from the back and that won't be possible since the cake will be set in front of a wall... But I had to take care of the sides, if I wanted it to look real.
I debated (with myself, I do that sometimes) whether I should color the gumpaste on the sides only, or the whole piece before I roll it out and cut it.


Eventually I realized coloring it before the roll and cut will be less time consuming and will give the best results.

So I did. But the color itself was a big question mark.
You know how puzzles have that cardboard special color to their back side? well I tried several food color mixes and ended up with a combination of Extra black, enough to have a midum gray bulk of gumpaste and then I added a dab of party green (I think leaf green should work as well)
and Voilla! I got that cardboard color.

Puzzle pieces made of colored gumpaste

Just to make sure, I placed a gumpaste puzzle piece next to the real puzzle piece. My eldest daughter asked if she could have a bite and pick up the real puzzle piece... 

The hand painted puzzle pieces. 


Luckily I saw what she was doing and stoped her in time!
Stay tuned for the next post. where you will see the finallized cake at the wedding hall!


Cake away!
Sharon

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