Okay how did I get myself into this????? I was asked by a friend of my husbands to make a doll cake for his daughters 5th Birthday. I agreed, as I love making doll cakes..... THEN I get a call from the girl Mum who says they are now having a 'Balloon' theme party and the cake now needs to be a Balloon cake. I am still thinking ok this will work out until today... she send me a picture that she wants the cake to look like.... it's a photo of actual balloons in a bunch!!!!

I am quite new to cake decorating and I can't see how to make a bunch of balloons, after all we are working with cake here, how can you achieve this? Ive had a look in the galleries but the balloon cakes are all individual balloons not in a bunch.

please please please can someone help me... I am freaking out here... this will be my first cake outside my family!

Sorry for rambling and this probably doesnt even make sense!

Thank you to anyone who can talk me down from my panic..

What about doing a sheet cake and then drawing a bunch of balloons (that looks like the bunch in the picture she gave you) with icing on the cake?

Or if she absolutely wants the actual cake to be shaped like a bunch of balloons, I'll bet you could do that with a cupcake cake. Just arrange the outside cupcakes so they look like the outer edges of a bunch of balloons. Does that make sense?

Do a round cake and either use the mini ball pan to make balloons on top or do a FBCT of a bunch of balloons.
For the string with the mini ball balloons you could either use icing to make them or use curling ribbon in the colors of the balloons.

I am trying to post a picture of some cakes with balloons but i can't. Thos epicture are more than 800pix. If you give me your email i can send them.

You could do an oval and a couple round 1 or 2 layer cakes and trim them to fit together tightly(overlapping some so one looks like it is in front of the other). All rounds staggered slightly would work also. Not sure how much cake you need but then you could round the edges a little to make it more realistic. The curling ribbon attached to the bottoms of each and tied would look nice! Each cake could be ice in different colors and could even do a lighter or white comma at the top right to look like a shiny spot. Hope that makes sense?!?!?

YOU GUYS ROCK....

In my blind panic I forgot to say she wants 5 balloons (to represent her age).... Do you think if I use the sports ball and cut into the sides so the 5 balloons fit in together like a jigsaw that would work? I've just turned my oven on as I might try this with the mini ball pan to see if it works.... If anyone agrees this idea might work do you think I should decorate in buttercream or fondant?

The cake isn't for a few weeks so I have time to get this right..... breathe Kathryn breathe

My email is [email protected]

thank you thank you thank you

Fondant or a nice crusting buttercream smoothed with viva would both work. The sports ball sounds good to me.

emial with pictures sent!!!

Thank you everyone and especially 'nenufares' those pictures are fab!

See what you guys at CC do???? I've gone from a neurotic maniac to mildly worried in 5 mins flat

What did I do before I found you guys?

Here is a picture of a balloon cake I made.. Are you familiar with Frozen buttercream transfers??
Well this is exactly what I did.. I drew out the balloons on a paper, then placed wax paper on top of it.. I then outlined the balloons with my icing.. let it freeze.. then I just put a big spoon full of icing and started pushing it out to meet the edges, and continued to do the same thing over and over.. put a big spoon full and then started smoothing it out with a spoon.. Until they became 3-d.. then I let them freeze for about half an hour. Then I layed a viva paper towel on them and patted them so that they were smooth.. I use reg. crisco and sugar (buttercream) for all my FBT. oh yeah I also get a paper towel with a little oil on it before I start my FBT's and rub it on the wax paper to ensure me that it will not stick to wax paper.. I also used real streamers for the balloons.. It was a big hit.. I also piped some small balloons to the sides with icing and added more streamers.. GOOD LUCK

How many does the cake have to feed? I would also probably use the ball pan, make 5 of them, use fondant for the strings and "tie" them together at the bottom with a royal icing handle.Good luck I am sure you are going to do fine. Cheffie

Hi there, I saw in a Wilton book, the cutest idea for balloons.... they used the sports ball pan and made like 3 or them, but you can make as many as you need to cover the servings and just bake the half sports ball pans and then cover in MMF, the are soooo cute!!!! Then just fold a triangle of fondant to make the knot of the balloon and put ribbon around it to make the ribbon of the ballon. I believe each half ball pan serves about 3-4 slices, so you can make as many as you need (the more the prettier in my opinion) and make them a bunch. Then take all the ribbons and make a bow out of MMF to have them all together as a bunch. HTH, I just thought this was the cutest idea and haven't had the opportunity to try it for myself, hope you like the idea. Good luck!

What yearbook was it in nefgaby? (I am such a visual person)

I've just baked 6 mini balls and tried to cut then so they fit together like a jigsaw, what a disaster! I'll try piping the buttercream over each one to see if it looks any better but I've gone back to the raving lunatic I was when I started this post

Cake decorating - have you ever experienced higher highs or lower lows????

hmmm can I use this as an excuse to finally get to take a trip to New Zealand so I can let you borrow my (retired) mini-ballon pan??? (drat -- bank account said -- make that screamed -- NO!)

looking at all these wonderful suggestions -- my tummy votes briansbaker's ton's of frosting...but common sense (so annoying how it gets in the way) agrees that doing mini-balls -- that is if you have a mini-ball pan -- or sports ball would be eaiser.

another option if you don't have those pans -- small glass pyrex (oven-proof) bowels.

Hi Katharry, it wasn't a yearbook, it was Celebrate with Fondant, pg. 10. Let me know, if you don't have it, I'll take a picture of it and e-mail it to you!

Ha Ha Doug.. Luckily the lady who ordered this cake, can eat buttercream icing until it's running out of her ears!!!! LOL But hey beats all that carving, cutting and fighting with the crumbs....

Hi, here is the pic, sorry I don't know how to use my scanner and the quality is not the best! . HTH

Oh nefgaby I have this book!!!!! I have spent the last four months purchasing every Wilton item off Ebay !!!

These balloons are great, she wants a bunch but I have just tried with the mini ball pan (I have the sports ball but wanted to trial run with the mini)... I consider myself a fairly intelligent person but can cut those darn things to fit together!

briansbaker you are so right about the crumbs, what a nightmare to have to ice them smooth!

Doug... there is a balloon pan??? I am searching on Ebay as we speak

nenufares was kind enough to send me some photos, I am attaching the one I think will be the easiest - for all you professionals out there please tell me if this isn't easy... funny as a newbie how you can look at a picture and think "Yeah I can do that"!

Otherwise I think nefgaby may have found the winner?

That is a VERY cute idea too!! They look like 8" round pans to me and what I would do to make them fit as a bunch is to cut 3-8" circles out of velum type paper and overlap them as you would want your bunch, then cut the paper and that would give you your patterns. Then just place the pattern over the cake and cut the cake to make them fit together. Good luck and what a fun cake to make!!

Nefgaby... you're a legend! What a great idea to make a pattern. I would never have thought of that!

I think I am finally set people

I am so unbelievable grateful, thanks to everyone who posted!!!

Will post picture.

Kindest regards
Kathryn

I was watching a cake decorating show last night and they were making things for the cake out of rice krispies treats. why not form the balloons, cover with fondant and go from there? The cake artist covered them for a tequila bottle and made a dog form out of it. it was unreal.

You are welcome Katharry!!! Glad I could help! And BTW, you made my night ! Good luck and can't wait to see pics!

lbrutland
thats a great idea.. hmm.. have to keep that in mind!! thanks!

lbrutland- I saw that show too, it was the new show, Ace of cakes with Duff from Baltimore. He's a little rough around the edges, but has great ideas and talent!

katharry- I love your little Kiwi bird!

Thanks MavericksMommy.... but not quite as cute as Maverick!

Do you have a Petal pan? This has 8 rounded shapes along the sides. I would use the top four 'petals' as four of the balloons and with the mini ball pan or just with frosting 'create' the fifth balloon in the foreground. Use that foremost balloon to write your message on, or at least the child's name.The bottom part of the cake could be left as is to give a scalloped edge look and provide room for additional writing, or you could shape it as desired.
Another option would be to bake a 10 in round, and decorate 3 balloon shapes flat, then using the mini ball pan bake two cakes for the last two balloons and place them, overlapping the flat ones to give a more dimentional look.
Good luck!

Hello,
I have a photo in my album of a balloon cake.
I made this cake for a friend's son's christening. it was based on the one in The Australian Womens Weekly children's Cakes cookbook. Just 3 x 20cm cakes covered in fondant with fondant ribbons.
Good luck

Thanks, all great ideas and sone I love your cakes!

I'm going to do a practice run this weekend, if it's not a total disaster I'll post pics