Hi! First off, I've been a long time lurker and I absolutely love this site. Everyone is so kind, helpful and friendly, it seems like such a great community.

And I'm hoping you can help me out! I'm in a bit of a pickle. It's my boyfriend's 27th birthday coming up and I'm throwing him a surprise party on July 14th and I wanted to make him a cake. Preferably nothing too complicated, but still something cool in the shape of either a Wii (http://www.theultrageeks.com/spanish/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/wii.jpg) or maybe the X Box (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~ranma1/img/xbox.jpg)

What I'm hoping to do is bake a chocolate 9x13 cake (hopefully from a mix, with maybe some add-ins to make in yummier/sturdier, any recommendations?) then cut it in half, and stack with frosting as the binder and then turn it on it's side for the Wii. Would this work? Any idea how to get grey frosting? Which design would be easier for a complete newbie?

Sorry to pepper you guys with questions but any help or advice would be so appreciated. I'm getting nervous!


Thank you again,
Katie

To get grey icing, just add a little black coloring, paste, Americolor, whatever you choose. The more you add, the darker will grey will be.

As far as turning the cake on it's side - probably a bad idea. It would be better to cut it in the width that you want and stack. Regardless of how much binder you use, the cake will fall apart AND will be too weak to actually support it's own weight if it is turned on it's side.

I've never used binders or extenders so I'm not much help there.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, yes it does! Any disaster aversions is definitely a good thing. Is there any way to get black food coloring out of the green-red-blue-yellow food coloring pack you can get in grocery stores or should I try and find a specialty store?

those water down icing too much in my experience. i would go to your local craft store and pick up some of the wilton colors or order some americolor online. but if you are set on staying at the grocery store, they sometimes have black decorating icing things (they in tubes or small cans with some tips attached) a little of that mixed in white will get gray for you and chanced are the black will come in handy for details on the controllers or the console it self.

If you have any craft stores near you most of them now carry at least a few cake things, even walmart! If you are going to use a box mix I would imagine that using a pound cake would be very sturdy. just a suggestion, I usually do from scratch so I'm not sure (although today I'm doing box sheet cakes to cut costs b/c of a cheap bride!!!). I did a old school nintendo controller for a friend and it turned out well and it was easy enough to do. I just used a sheet cake and colored it with sprays (something else they sell at the stores) and used red and black icing for the details. I also think I saw a xbox controller somewhere on this website. When I am at my home computer I'lll send you the nintendo controller pic. Good luck and have fun!!!

I use box mixes all the time. I really like Duncan Hines. The french vanilla is yummy and holds up well. So does the classic yellow cake. You should be able to find some sort of black coloring or even a small tube of black icing at the grocery store in the baking aisle.

I think I would stack your cake as well. I would take a sheet cake and cut it the width of the Wii and continue to stack with buttercream inbetween each layer until you have the highth that you want. Crumb coat it and let it set up in the fridge for a while before you put your final frosting coat on.

Hello there. Good for you trying something different for your first.

I'd have to agree with the others about the color. Wilton makes a jel, that isn't expensive. Most of the time under $1.00. Just remember a little goes a long way. Just add the tiniest amount you can always add more.

On the Cake: Isn't the Wii about afoot tall if not taller and skinny? If that is the case I'd cut a sheet cake in the width and length you want in strips and then stack them to get the height. Just remember to use frosting(I prefer Buttercream) to glue the peices together. To be sure that it doesn't slide I'd put some scewers or straws down from the top to the bottom to keep it sturdy. Then put it in the freezer until it gets hard. When hard I'd cut down any uneven points you don't like. Cover with a light amount of butter cream(crumbcoat) let it set for a little while. then cover it with your colored frosting. and add your decorations.

Good luck let us know how it turns out.

You can PM me if you have any questions.

I would definitely take a trip to Michael's and buy the gel food coloring for the grey color...get black it is only $1.50. If you have trouble with the cake I would use Rice Krispie Treats for the Wii instead of cake...but try the cake. Depending on how high you are going you should be able to tell as you make it how sturdy it will be. Good luck and I hope he likes it!

Welcome to the Forums!!!

For a sturdy cake:

1 Box Mix (Duncan Hines- Super Moist)- Chocolate Fudge maybe
1 Box of pudding mix (to compliment the cake flavor)- Chocolate pudding
An extra egg

So you would prepare the box mix as it states on the back but also add the dry pudding mix and the extra egg.

This will make a denser cake for you to work with.

For black icing:

If you are willing you could make a chocolate icing and then add black from there. That's what I usually do when I can.

I would definitely suggest making a buttercream. If you try to work with store bought icing you are going to have a lot of complications.

Wii or XBox:

Depends on if you want to deal with difficult colors or stacking... Either would be a nifty idea. If you were going to do a Wii (life size) it's actually quite smaller than and XBox, so that also depends on how many people you want to feed. Or if you really want to do the Wii you can do a larger than life size version.

Other:

Are you going to be transporting this cake? If so, since this is your first, if you do decide to do the Wii I would put a dowel rod or two down through the top. I would hate for all the hard work to fall over and you swear off decorating for as long as you live.

Good Luck and HTH!

i've actually stacked two cakes and then flipped it on it's side and it worked out for me...just let it sit that way it can adhere well. if you look at my pics that's what i did for the pill bottle cake that i did. hth

for yummier add ins try 1/3 cup of your flavor choice of liquid coffeemate or other luquid coffee creamer..yummo!

Thank you so much! Lots of great ideas and advice. This is the best site