I have been asked to do my first Dr. Seuss hat cake. Just that hat, nothing else.

What is the best method to making the stripes? I'm leaning towards painting them on. Would you recommend that or is there a better way?

Any tips to making this cake are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance 

I'd lean toward painting the stripes only because visible brush strokes would seem more Seussian if you know what I mean.

Hey Melanie,

     I hope it's not too late to put in my two cents but I did this Seuss  inspired cake by layering white and red MMF. Then, I used a paintbrush and black food coloring to paint on the little black lines. It was pretty easy that way. I hope that helps!
Jennifer

Gorgeous cake Jennifer!

Thank you for your advice, it's not too late. I don't have to attempt this cake until March, just getting my ducks in a row 

I want to make sure I get this right , did you cover it all in white and then add the red stripes and top on the hat? 

Thanks again!

Cover it in white fondant then paint the red stripes and outline in black.

I covered it in horizontal stripes of white and red and then did a top round disc to cover the very top of it. You could cover the whole thing in white first and then add the red stripes but then the red stripes would be coming off more than the white. I'm sure it'll be great any way you do it :)

I covered it in white fondant... then cut strips of plastic wrap coated with a thin layer of Crisco and adhered them to what would be the white stripes. Then just airbrushed the whole thing red, removed the plastic wrap and painted the black outlines. It was super fast and easy!

Thanks everyone!

Great Seuss hats!!

I will be using all of your advice

I get nervous when a cake looks " easy"  usually those are the ones I have the most difficulty with for some reason.

This one has me nervous .

Thanks again for sharing your hats and techniques with me.

Hopefully I will be posting one that looks as great and not one in 'cake disasters'

It is carved slightly. This customer did not want to serve very many people. So, I did a 7in dummy on the bottom with two 7in cakes on top. If you use a 6in cardboard in between the two 7in cakes you will have enough support and still have enough room to slightly curve the hat.

The exaggerated top was done by adding a pieces of cupcakes and cake ball crumbs (already mixed with frosting). You just add the extra cake scraps to the top and fill in with the cake ball crumbs. Crumb coat the whole thing and cover with fondant.

The fondant ended up much thinner than I rolled it because gravity was dragging it down a little while I smoothed it. The cake ended up being about 15 inches high. I had a lot of seams to cover up since I was planning on painting the fondant rather than adding strips. To fill the seams I watered down some fondant and made it almost like a spackle. You can fill in seams with wet fingers to get everything smooth. Let it all dry for a couple of hours before painting.

This cake made me so nervous before I began, but ended up going pretty quickly with little issues. I am sure your cake will be wonderful. 

Good Luck

Oh yeah,

Dont forget to put a dowl down the whole thing to hold it in place. The dummy really aided in the overall support.

Thank you so much! I would have never thought to do the cupcake, cake scrap topper. That is awesome! 

I'm excited to give mine a go now...

My client wants it to be " kinda crooked " so I am going to make the top funky like you did...I hope.

Thank you again for taking the time to help!

I covered mine in the white first then added the red stripes with thinly rolled out sugarpaste ... the black was with a food-colour pen. x

hey melin have you completed your task for this lovly dr seuss hat cake..

then please dont forget to show us ...

I will be sure to post a photo as soon as it's done.

Still nervous about it.

I'll be making it March 24th.

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/2926489/width/200/height/400[/IMG] to do the stripes on the hat I used an airbrush

Thank you everyone for all of your help!

The day has come for me to make my Seuss hat and this is it...

It wasn't too bad.

For anyone who comes across this post looking for guidance , I will be posting a tutorial of how I made this cake on my blog next week.

Thank you again to everyone who took the time to give me advice...every little bit helped!