I was so excited to do a laptop cake. I had the base part done and was ready to put the screen on and it wouldn't stay. I had taken two pieces of foam core and put dowels in between and then covered with fondant. It was way too heavy. So I cut a regular card board and covered very thinly with buttercream and that was too heavy.

Any ideas on how to get it to stay in a single layer 9x13 cake??? I was so disapointed. The customer LOVED it but I discounted it $20 as it wasn't what I had promised. They assured me they would order another one next year when they were in town.

The only thing I can think of to do differently is to cut a strip of styrofoam the same length and height as the cake and cover it in icing or fondant and stick the screen into that instead of cake.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know as I have another one to do in a few weeks.

I was so mad I didn't even take a picture of the cake.

See doug's drawing in this thread: http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-638478-laptop.html

The only other thing I could think of was to get some small "L" shaped brackets from the hardware store and slide them under the back of the cake, propping the cardboard screen between the "L" bracket and the cake.

i only did one laptop cake and for the screen i made some blue had candy and poured with 4 dowels as sticks in it. When i did the base of the cake i screwed a block into a wooden base board. drilled holes for the dowels to slip into. then placed the cake up against the block and covered all with icing, then when i got to the party just attached the screen by slipping the dowels into the pre drilled holes.

For the screen it was blue hard candy, then the back was covered with white fondant, then another layer of black fondant.

If you can get a tuffboard you can bend them. They're hard plastic boards, and I use them instead of the cardboards under tiers. If you heat them by holding them over a burner, or using a torch on them, you can bend them and hold the in place until they cool off. They'll keep the shape since the plastic will just stay however you put it when it's cooled off.

I did a laptop by bending a tuffboard into a 45 degree angle, like the screen was open on the computer, then I put a sheet cake on the board. The weight of the cake held the board in place, and I covered the piece that was angled up with gumpaste and painted it like the screen.

You could do this with wood if you don't have a tuffboard, but the plastic boards make it really easy to do it in one piece, with no construction needed.

Thanks I will have to try those ideas out. Not sure I can get the tuffboard here. But will look for it.

When I did a Nintendo DS for my son (see pics) I used two brackets bent at a 135 angle to attach a smaller wooden board to the base. It worked great and was super stable, plus with the good solid construction I'll be able to use it again for another DS or laptop or something. The hardware was the most expensive part, the wood scraps from the hardware store were really inexpensive. And instead of putting cake on the screen half, I'm sure you could just cover it with fondant.

Good luck on the next one!

jenny

Thanks everyone. I will let you know how the next one goes. I going to try it out this week and donate it to a new business in town.