Help With This Halloween Cake Sketch, Please? :)
Decorating By emlashlee Updated 28 Oct 2009 , 2:43pm by scanners2003
I am making a 3-tier (10/8/6) Halloween cake and need some advice. It will be fondant-covered with fondant and RI accents (vines, gravestone writing). I'm pretty happy with the design of the bottom two tiers, but need some help with the top tier. I couldn't think of anything else I hadn't used so I put skulls and dancing skeletons on it. I don't want to do two white things. Do you have any ideas?
(PS - The topper idea is not well-drawn here, but came from a great cake by OutofCharacter, so you can check it out in her pics if you'd like to.)
TIA big time!! 
What about spooky eye's. Could do different colors outlined in black with black eye lids.
Or you could do just the outline of slanted eyes (you know-like yellow eyes peering out of the darkness) along with the skeletons or skulls.
I like the direction you're going in with this. Here are some ideas for you to consider. In general:
--Do all the decorations in cookies, except maybe number 3 below.
--Got to have some green spooky eyes. Bats and witches are missing.
1 - Bottom tier - make the decorations smaller. I think they're too tall.
--Pipe black royal icing with a 1 or 2 tip to make the spider webs reach from the cake to the front of the tombstones.
--Spider on one of the webs.
--Open coffin with Dracula peeking out.
--Frankenstein digging for a new brain.
2 - Second tier from the bottom. Love that scrolling vine with the candy corn - really cool, but pipe pumpkin leaves instead of the ones in the drawing, for authenticity.
--Make the face on the pumpkin fierce instead of jolly. Or take the face away and add the hairy cat previously khalstead mentioned.
--Maybe use a round or hex instead of a square, either way, center the pumpkin.
--Make the pumpkin smaller - it's also too tall.
--Use real candy corn.
3 - Third from bottom - Get rid of the skulls and make the dancing skeletons look like paper dolls all the way around. I like the dancing skeleton as drawn.
4 - Change the top tier so the background of the house looks like the full moon.
--Put a silhouette in one of the tower windows.
--If you're not using the 3-D ball for the top tier, convert it to a flat half circle cookie and make the castle smaller.
--Kimsmom is right about the bats. Perhaps silhouettes of bats or a witch flying above the roof of the castle.
--Fence out of black licorice or piped with black royal icing to look like wrought iron.
I can't wait to see the end result. Take photos as you go, we'd love to see some of your step-by-step, too.
Theresa
I don't have anymore suggestions, but I just wanted to say that I love your design! I especially love the middle tier with the pumpkin vines and candy corn. Very cool!
Holy moley! Thank you SO much for your great ideas! I can't wait to get cracking on this cake. I love all the ideas...now I just have to decide which ones I can do with my fledgling modeling skills. This will be hard since before I didn't have any ideas, now just too many good ones to choose from. (((Big Hugs!)))
-emlashlee
Oh, and I think I will do the wrought iron with RI (thanks, Theresa), but I've never done anything standing up with it before. Do I just pipe it onto wax paper, let dry, then slide the hard lines off?
Holy moley! Thank you SO much for your great ideas! I can't wait to get cracking on this cake. I love all the ideas...now I just have to decide which ones I can do with my fledgling modeling skills. This will be hard since before I didn't have any ideas, now just too many good ones to choose from.
(((Big Hugs!)))-emlashlee
Oh, and I think I will do the wrought iron with RI (thanks, Theresa), but I've never done anything standing up with it before. Do I just pipe it onto wax paper, let dry, then slide the hard lines off?
Yes, you understand the technique. Personally, I do not use waxed paper, I use parchment or plastic film. I find it easier to remove the RI figure from them. You can stick the posts into mini marshmallows if you are hesitant about putting into direct contact with BC (which it will do, even with fondant over the cake).
You mention fledgling modeling skills. Not really knowing your skill level, I thought the cookies would be easy for anyone to do. We had a whole thread on cookie cakes a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I am unable to bring the thread up due to technical difficulties. I hope someone else remembers it and can post it here, so you can see how they look. They're actually pretty cool.
Theresa
Thanks for the parchment tip, Theresa. I'll have to try that. I have to admit, I've never seen a cookie cake, so I was kind of steering away from that. I just couldn't picture what it would look like. I have the basic Halloween cutters in large and small, so I could either do it in cookie or fondant. I'll have to see if I can find a pic, because that sounds neat. As far as the modeling, I can do basic things, but I was trying to imagine doing a 3D Dracula coming out of the coffin and know it would look more like a blob - my facial features leave something to be desired. LOL! I'm still practicing them, but I'm not ready for a cake to leave me bearing gargoyle-like features.
To secure the fence, would piping a small blob of RI onto the cake, then setting the dry post into it work? Hmmm...then I would have to let that dry again before putting in the horizontal fence pieces I bet. What do you think?
Thanks for the parchment tip, Theresa. I'll have to try that. I have to admit, I've never seen a cookie cake, so I was kind of steering away from that. I just couldn't picture what it would look like. I have the basic Halloween cutters in large and small, so I could either do it in cookie or fondant. I'll have to see if I can find a pic, because that sounds neat. As far as the modeling, I can do basic things, but I was trying to imagine doing a 3D Dracula coming out of the coffin and know it would look more like a blob - my facial features leave something to be desired. LOL!
I'm still practicing them, but I'm not ready for a cake to leave me bearing gargoyle-like features. To secure the fence, would piping a small blob of RI onto the cake, then setting the dry post into it work? Hmmm...then I would have to let that dry again before putting in the horizontal fence pieces I bet. What do you think?
A 3-D vampire would be easy-peasy. There's a 3-D coffin cookie on the Wilton website.
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Something-for-that-Coffin-Cookies
--take the basic design and create a cardboard template.
--make the head. Round ball with a nose and two pointy ears. Paint hair and face on.
--Make body. Long round log. No detail needed.
--Make 1 arm to hold cape.
--Make 2 legs and feet to stick out at bottom of cape.
Assemble body -
--head to body.
--arm on side, bent over like he's covering his face with the cape (think Bela Lugosi).
--legs and feet to body.
--wrap cape from back, over arm, all the way across the front.
--lay in cookie coffin.
RI has a tendency to absorb grease, and therefore might soften. The Wilton instructors I learned from suggested sticking the pieces into mini-marshmallows, then pushing the marshmallows into the icing. If someone knows an easier method, I hope they see this and post it.
I don't have anymore suggestions, but I just wanted to say that I love your design! I especially love the middle tier with the pumpkin vines and candy corn. Very cool!
This is pretty much exactly what I was going to type Can't wait to see your finished cake, you got some wonderful ideas here!
Now that the cakes are already crumb-coated and resting, I have time for my mind to wander and get panicky. I was planning on using RI for the details on the tombstones and piping of the stick tree, etc. However, now I'm nervous because I used MFF and it has butter in it. Will it cause the RI to melt off? Should I use BC? And, how early can I put the details on? Do I need to wait until right before delivery or is Friday night okay to do it for a Saturday night delivery? Thanks a bunch?
P.S. - The pieces are coming out great and I want to share a pic so bad! Now I can't find the charger cord for my camera and the battery is dead. Oh, the agony!
Whoo Hoo! The cake was a great success, thanks to you all! You were so wonderful to help me out in my time of creative stinkiness. Here are the pics of the finished cake. I'm PMing all of you tonight and tomorrow to say thanks, but wanted to say it here, too. (Hugs!)
Wow, wow, wow! It turned out so great! I love seeing a cake go from a drawing to a finished piece of edible art. I still love the candy corn, and the witch is really cute! I also like how you executed the moon with the haunted house and the railing on the top of the cake.
that cake is amazing!!!!!! I too LOVE the candy corn (my fav. candy, well in the fall...year round it's gotta be haribo gummies lol)
I love the witch, her face is perfect is the topper a cookie...it looks amazing as well......you could enter any piece of this cake into a contest and do very well....as a whole, it's gotta be a shoe in!!! Great work on this!!!
Oh, you took my advice on how to do the moon. I'm so honored! Thank you!!
The cake looks great!
Theresa
I never thought I could like a Halloween cake, but I love this one! I love the colors (black, to purple, to orange, to yellow), the topper is gorgeous, the witch is so well done, all the different ideas are so cute!!
You're putting that in the contest, right? Great cake!
I can't enter it into the contest because I've posted it in this thread. It's gotten too much exposure to remain anonymous, but thanks anyway! I would take getting your guys' help to make it a great one for my portfolio over putting it in the contest any day. Much better for me in the long run. Thanks! 
The cake is great. It's going into my favorites. The colors look so good on each tier. I really love the Witch. You did a fantastic job. 
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