I have a cake order due on the 5th. They would like a strawberry cake with strawberry filling and vanilla icing. No problem. The decorations is what I'm having a problem with. They want a basket weave around the sides of the cake, which the cake is 11 x 15 double layered (4" high). They want a speed bump with tire marks on one side and a thumbs up on the other. I thought of making the speed bump out of gum paste which shouldn't be to hard but need some help with the tire tracks. Then I need a lot of help on making a thumbs up. Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks for your help
Lisa

I have no idea.

Just offering you a BUMP...

Not much help from me... i am in a slump on creativity... but bumping you for help... good luck

Do you have kids? Maybe steal a truck from them with big tires and run it through your gum paste before it dries. Maybe add some crumbled dark chocolate (or cookies) over the tracks to look like loose dirt. I'll have to think about the thumbs up thing....that's tough!!!

This may sound dumb, but I was thinking about this for my son's birthday (the tire tracks that is!). I was wondering if you could take a toy truck (with tread on it's tires), run it through some black food coloring, then "drive" it on the cake where you needed the tire marks? If it was fondant it probably would work, but what about crusted buttercream? If you think of it like a stamp? Just a thought.

Thanks for the help on the tire tracks. I really like the idea of using food coloring on the tracks and running it over the cake. It will be buttercream but I think if I'm careful enough I can pull that one off.

It's the thumbs up that killing me. I'm just drawing a total blank on how to do a hand and giving the sign of a thumbs up. Is there anyone out there that has any suggestions? Please

Can you model one from candy clay or fondant/gumpaste or does she want it all in buttercream?

You could do a FBCT in a thumbs up. Here is a clipart that might help

NO the decorations do not have to be buttercream. Actually they requested the gum paste as they want to keep them aftewards. I think that's why I'm stumped. The FBCT wouldn't be that bad but I really don't think that's what they want.

But how would you mold a hand??????

When I sculpt here is how I would do it.

1. Take your fondant and mold a round ball till it is perfectly smooth. Then gently elongate it a bit.
2. Then gently flatten out the left end of the fondant ball. So it sort of looks like a boxing glove in a way.
3. On the right end, at the top, snip a small piece right to left keeping it still attached on the left side about a third of the way. Still think boxing glove.
4. Press a small indentation into the top of that snippet on the right side where it is not attached. This is for the nail. Smooth out the rough spots. This is now your thumb.
5. On the rounded end....take a knife and gently outline three lines to differentiate the fingers for about 1/3 from the end......go around the ball to the other side about 1/3 of the way.
6. Where you end your lines take a very small dowel and imprint four small dots that look like dimples to indicate the knuckles above the lines.
7. One the front press into each finger a small indent for the fingernail.
Finally, lift the thumb up into a "thumb's up" position and let dry.

Hope this helps and is not confusing.

Oh ya - couple more things, I would make the speed bump out of cake and cover it with frosting. I think it would look better for you.

As for the tire tracks, I have tried this sort of thing and it doesn't work well unless you do it on fondant before you apply it to the cake. Or you could use this as a pattern. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://imagescommerce.bcentral.com/merchantfiles/4508723/tire%2520track%252001.JPG&imgrefurl=http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID4508723P936453-Automotive/Automotive-Automotive-Tire-Tracks-01.aspx&h=147&w=286&sz=10&tbnid=gd7WMY9WSH2TxM:&tbnh=56&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtire%2Btracks&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2 and cut a stencil out of it.

Hope that helps.

If it is okay for the hand to be "flat", you could find a clipart image and then cut it out and use it as a template to cut the gumpaste hand out of. Then you could add more details with edible markers or food coloring & paint brushes or whatever..... might be pretty simple - I"m not sure though. Good luck! What a bizarre decoration........ speed bump & thumbs up??? You got a story behind this one that you can share??

Could you mold it around your own thumb? You would have to be careful because it would be hollow. It might be difficult to get off your thumb, but if you greased your thumb up it might work.

Tiptop57 - THANK YOU. Your directions are very detailed. I will give it a try and see how it comes out. Do you think if I made it this weekend it would dry in time?

imartsy - Well, I'm not sure of the entire story but I can share what I know.

First off it's a graduation cake for my daughters 2 best friends. At the school this year they put speed bumps in the parking lot to slow the kids down. Well my daughters friend burned out on the bumps as well as a lot of other students. When my daughter's friend burned out on the speed bumps he actually took them and through them in the garbage. Therefore he got caught. It's actually turned out to be a big joke amongst their class and even made it into the graduation speech of everyone.

As far as the thumbs up... I can only imagine ....

Does that kind of clear up the weird decorations?

LOL I guess! maybe the thumbs up is a "thank you for destroying the speed bump"

It will be dry enough to place on the cake but it won't be dry all the way through. I had a bird that took over three weeks to dry. But it was fine to move around and place on a cake. Good luck and make sure to post the picture. We would love to see it.

I made a hand recently and instead of laying it flat, fold the fingers in. I molded it after my husband's hand from fondant. A photo of it is in my photos. Hope it helps.

Here's a cake I did with piped tire tracks on it, for the cake, I did steal one of my sons toys(I put it back together after I was done ) ran the tire over the cake the piped over the indents, on the board I used a small tire and food coloring. As for the thumbs up, I'm not to sure.

imbkay13 - Great tire tracks!

tiptop57, thanks so much, you should have seen the look on my son's face as I was looking for just the right size tire to make the track, and then he comes out to the kitchen only to see his truck in pieces(he knew I could fix it so he was ok with it

This question might seem a bit out of place but if you do make decorations like a hand out of gumpaste, can you eat it. I have never worked with gumpaste before and would like to try but I like to have as much as possible to serve and actually be edible on the cake.

Anyway, if it is possible, I really like tiptop57's idea for making the hand. Sounds like it would look very impressive and should get a great response! (no pun intended) LOL

Well, I gave up on the thumbs up. I tried to mold it but it just didn't come out good. So instead we went with a broken calculator. It was fun trying to make the hand. I think if I had more time to make it I would have done fine. Maybe next time.

Thanks for all your great suggestions. You can view the cake in my photos. Thanks again for the help.

Lisa

I just looked at the cake- it came out so cool! I really like the tire tracks.

Amber

Just saw the cake and it looks amazing. The calculator looks so real I had to double check your description! Great work!