A very good friend has a couple of boys with birthdays early in October and I’ve been making their cakes for a while now. It started out with Brain Smash Cakes and then Minions and Avengers.
This year she picked out cakes that were totally suited for each boy and the boys had definite ideas about the cakes, ideas they picked up from watching cake videos. They both wanted candy to come tumbling out of the cakes when they were cut. Oh boy!
One of the boys is on a Nightmare Before Christmas kick and so she wanted a Jack Skellington cake for him. He wasn’t too difficult to make with a bit of fondant and some shaping. I did use a template I made for the main part of the eyes. I wanted to make sure they were the same. I also didn’t cut the domed part of the cake off like usual. Jack need a rounded shape, not flat and that seemed to be the best way to get that shape so didn’t have to carve anything. He didn’t turn out too badly and everyone loved it.
The other, who turned 6, loves sushi. It’s his favorite thing to eat, especially Tekkamaki Tuna Rolls. My first thought was “how in the world am I going to do that?” but my brain immediately started coming up with ideas. I decided the best way to get that textured look of nori was to use crumpled up waxed paper and smoosh it down all over a flat piece of fondant. It worked like a charm. Next I, finally, used the air brush my son gave me for Christmas several years ago to get the color. The hunk of tuna was more fondant and then buttercream frosting for the rice. I don’t think it looks too rice-like but it had to do.
I’m my own worst critic and I see flaws everywhere. My problem was the candy filling. I didn’t want cakes with candy in the middle sitting around for a few days so I waited until the last minute to make both cakes. I was afraid the moisture from the cake would make the candy all stick together and get gooey. It’s the first time I’ve tried one of the surprise middle cakes so I wasn’t exactly sure how the candy would hold up. It actually looks like it didn’t do too badly because they didn’t cut into it until the next evening.
Making the center was easy. I used four cakes and cut holes in the middle of the bottom three and left the top alone. While researching a bit on how to make these kinds of cakes a found that several people left the bottom layer alone and only cut holes in the middle layers. The boys wanted the candy to tumble out and I figured the bottom layer needed a hole as well. Not to mention all of that candy getting melted and soggy by sitting on a layer of cake…it makes me gag just thinking about it.
I really enjoyed making these and wouldn’t mind making a few more in the future. Maybe for my grandson’s birthday.
A Little of This and a Little of That 