Hello,

I wanted to make the cat on a ball of yarn cake for this Saturday. The cake that is in Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes book. I do not have access to the book. It is out on loan at the library and the bookstores near me do not carry that book. I was hoping someone would give me directions on how to make the cat and the ball of yarn. I am assuming that you use the ball pan for the cake and that you cover it with fondant. How do you make it look like yarn? Do you roll the fondant into thin pieces? Does it say how many pieces it needs to cover the cake? Also, any tips on how to make the cat?

Any suggestions/tips would be greatly appreicated.

Thank you,
Claudia

Materials:
2 x 1 (2 pint/5C) bowl-shaped cakes
10" round cake bd
3 1/2 lbs rolled fondant
blue, pink and black food colouring pastes
10x sugar in a sugar shaker
9 oz (280 g) buttercream
sugar glue

Trim the crust from each cake and slice the tops flat. Sandwich together w/ buttercream, then spread a thin layer over the surface to help the fondant stick. Colour 2 1/2 lb (1.25 kg) of fondant pale pink. Using 1 lb (500g), thinly roll out and cover the cake completely. Don't worry if the covering is untidy as this will be hidden later.

To make the strands of wool, roll long, thin sausages of fondant and stick over the cake w/ sugar glue. Apply 6 or 7 strands right across the top of the cake, from the bottom all the way round to the base at the other side. Cover the 2 remaining sides w/ diagonal strands which will leave a small triangular shape uncovered at the base. Cover this w/ vertical strands. Roll a few extra strands and stick them randomly over the cake.

Color 5 oz (155g) fondant black. Using 2 oz(60 g), roll a teardrop shape for the kitten's body. With 1 1/2 Oz (45g) , roll an oval shape for the head. Roll a thick sausage using 1 oz (30g) and cut 4 short lengths for the legs. W/ the remaining black, make 2 triangular-shaped ears, 2 tiny flattened balls for the pupils and then roll a little pointed tail. Cut 2 small triangular shapes from the remaining pink fondant to fill in each ear; also model a flattened ball for a collar and shape an oval nose.

w/ a little white fondant, flatten a tiny ball for a muzzle, stick on 2 small flattened balls of white w/ 2 slightly smaller flattened balls of blue at the base, then finally secure the pupils made earlier. Stick the kitten's nose in place.

Assemble tthe kitten on top of the cake. Roll balls of white fondant for the paws and stick in place w/ sugar glue. To finish, roll a final strand of wool using the last of the pink fondant and stick in postion draped around the kitten, falling onto the cake board.

Thank you eatdessert1st for the detailed instructions on how to make the cat on the yarn cake. The instructions seem straight forward. Now I just need to visual the written words. I'm definately a more of a visual person than a verbal/written person.

By the way, what is sugar glue?

Thanks again,
Claudia

Sugar glue can be royal icing, egg white, brand named sugar glue i.e. wilton or even water. When glueing fondant I use a very thick royal icing...the only drawback is you have to hold things in place while they dry.

ooops I meant to add have you got access to a play-dough gun..you know the kind kids use...I ask because I have that book and her wool strands are not done by hand I think she must have used one of those icing guns but I've heard you can also do this kind of thing with the play-dough thingie!

Claudia, I think I've seen the cake here on CC...you could do a search.

Here's a picture from the galleries like what you are talking about.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_153673.html

Also a tip for gluing fondant, I don't always have RI made so I use a marble sized piece of fondant mixed with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon water until it is the consistency of snot (sorry) and it works great for glue.

jibbies

Here is a pic of the cake I believe you're looking for

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=3389

For sugar glue I use 1T gum arabic dissolved in 1T water. It takes a while to dissolve (several hrs) so I make it overnight. Then I use a paintbrush to put it where it needs to go on the cake. It holds VERY well!
I'll try to get my scanner up and running to post a pic of the pages.