Hi.  I am making a halloween cake in the shape of a couldron.  The cake was made in a semi-hemispherical metal bowl and has turned out well.  I'm just about to start ganaching it.  The bottom two layers are obviously quite a bit narrower at the bottom than the top so I'm not sure how to get the fondant to stick to it.  I thought about decorating it upside down to start with on an 8" board which is the size of the bottom of the cake.  But I don't actually want to ice the bottom as it will later be turned over and put on an iced cake drum.  If I do do it upside down and just do the sides then I am still going to need to turn it over and decorate the top of it separately.  I think???  I'm wondering, when I turn it over to decorate the top, if the fondant will just fall off as it will be defying gravity if you know what I mean?

How would YOU go about icing the sides and top of a half hemispherical cake?

x

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I used buttercream instead. I used the viva towel method to smooth but hen used another paper towel with texture to make the final pass.  I liked how the texture was more like a metal cauldron too. Here is a picture.

I had put a tube through the center and had lights. I used sugar heated to the hard crack stage for the top (poured it into a pan the same size to cool the put the disc of sugar on the top of the cake) then added gummy worms.

Hope that helps :)

 Can't wait to see pictures, I just love the Halloween cakes

What a gorgeous cake picture.  Gutted though as I've already ganached the cake and I think ganache covered by buttercream might be a tad too much?  I like the idea of black buttercream though!  I'd never have thought of that!  I'll have to read up on those smoothing methods though.  I did a cake icing and decorating course in May but it was only using ganache and sugar paste so I have always decorated cakes that way ever since (not that I do vast quantities of them).  I just need to remember that is ISN'T the only way to decorate I guess.

I just ADORE the idea of lights.  I might nick that idea if you don't mind.  I just think it really brings the cake to life and makes it look even more Halloweeny!  What sort of tube did you use?  I've never put any sort of lighting in a cake before so wouldn't know where to start. 

I was going to ice the very top of the cake green with a black rim and then put piping gel tinted green on top to make it look liquidy and add a few worms, eyes and Halloweeny hundreds and thousands (green, orange, purple plus some white bone shaped hundreds and thousands) on top.  I last used the piping gel in May and I didn't think that it really went off but I better check that out before I use it.  If it has gone off I will give your tip a go.

Thanks ever so much for the feedback and ideas and I'll post the photos soon.  The party is this Thursday night!

AI really like your caulden idea. May I try to copy it?

If you mean mine, then most certainly :)

Thanks, I thought it turned out well. I am sure I copied it from someone else too so I am flattered to be able to share anything :) I actually used one of the plastic supports that about 1 inch diameter and hollow to core out the cake then reinsert it to bring the lights up. I actually had to build a cake base that I drilled a hole into for the lights to come down and plug in from below. I don't know if that makes sense or not. It is hard to explain. It was my first attempt at using lights as well and I didn't realize the lights (if left on more than about 10 minutes) would get hot enough to melt the sugar top I had put on. So.... use LED lights if you can find them, they don't heat up. I found some after Christmas that were battery operated LED and figured I would use them the next time but haven't gotten around to it.. you are getting me motivated.. thinking of doing a haunted house with the windows lit up maybe... :) We love Halloween and some friends always have a great Halloween party and I get to bring the cake... it was a PIA to cut though lol. Let me know if you have any other questions I can answer.

AHmmm that all sounds very tricky and a bit too complivated for me but... luckily my hubby is an electroncs engineer so I might be able to persuade him into tackling this challenge lol. Good tip about the led lights. Ill let you know how I get on. Love the haunted house idea too. I was trying to keep my cake simple by going for a couldron lol but I must admit I love a challenge hahaha x

Hi.  FINALLY got the cake finished so here's a quick picture.  Let it be noted that I am an amateour who has had a one day course in decorating so I'm a far cry from the professional cakes you can find on here.  To add some scale...it is about 7 inches deep and about 12 inches wide at the top.  I'll get there one day though.  After making this cake I now have a few stories for the disasters section of the forum lol.  Managed to sort most of them though... ish.  Really pleased with it in general although there are obviously a few things I would like to learn to do better.  The covering of the top layer doesn't look as flaw free as I would like by a long shot, although it didn't help that my 2 year old son decided to poke it quite deeply (luckily with clean hands phew)!  Also, I need to learn how to make a roll of icing look uniform.  I also needed to make the thickness of the flames much thicker to make them look more professional.  Hubby sorted the lights for me but I'm thinking white lights might have shown up better as the ones I used didn't really have the lovely effect that the ones in the couldron cake picture above did.  Other than that, I managed to hide most of the things that didn't go as well as planned.  The only things that aren't edible are the plastic skulls but I just don't have the time to make my own before Thursday :(

Under the light...

In the dark...

i love your cake--it's awesome--great job for sucha short time to be learning--

how to roll uniformly? find two dowel the size you want the roll to be and keep rolling the fondant in between them until it is uniform--sliding the roll all the way through if your dowel are shorter than you want your finished product--

love your cauldron

ALooks very cool! You did a great job, glad it worked out.

Thanks guys.  I realised AFTER posting the picture that I hadn't put a ribbon around the cake drum.  What a difference it can make to how good a cake looks!  The party was this evening and it went down a real treat :)  They didn't manage to get through it all but as it was a school halloween party they are taking the bottom layer in to school tomorrow to be served up.  I DO love cake but there's no way even I could have got through THAT much cake in a week lol.  I could have given it a fair shot but I AM TRYING to lose weight lol.