This is the effect I'm looking for: (see attached pic)

I was thinking maybe a 7" round cake w/ the half ball pan on top to help w/ the poofy top? Any suggestions on HOW to make the poofy top? I figured gumpaste would hold the shape better. It looks gathered around the base right under where the bottom band will be.
It's for a cooking theme party. My twin nieces are having a pasta theme party at one of those cool baking places. I thought maybe an apron cake and then a chef hat cake, if I can figure out how to make it look decent
Does anyone have any pics and/or instructions for either? Thanks for any help!

Melanie Mc.

I found this great pic of a chefs hat cake:
http://www.cakeconfections.net/Special%20Occasions/Chef%20Hat%20Large%20Web%20view.jpg

It looks like a larger cake on top of a smaller one, say a 5' on a 4', covered in fondant and the fondant looks 'baggy' and then pinched in to make the poofiness of the hat!
HTH's

I would do a two or three tier cake where the bottom tier is the band and just place the poofy part on top. If you make it to the scale shown you're probably gonna need a two tier top. But if you did a little bit shorter scale on top you could get away with a two layer band and a three layer pooffy top. Then if you use the 7" cake for the band use an 8" cake for the top. Put each on it's own board and dowel everything for support.

Cover the band with fondant-cover the top part separately and stack. Hey no worries--just do a ribbly fondant job on the top part--you got it!!

Yes you probably need the ball pan on top of the 8" cake though--or let one 8" bake real poofy and don't cut off the crown. You'll probably need to cut off the outside edge though to round it out enough to be convincing--Sculpt it a little but your fondant coud do a lot of the work for you too.

Looks like fun!