I have a request to make a cake for the nursery rhyme "The old woman who lived in a shoe"... I need some ideas, I would love to make this 3D, but, cannot figure out a good way to do it... also, I am so not good at making people, etc, and don't know what things that I could purchase to put in the "shoe"... Please help!

I forgot to mention, I need this cake to be designed within the next week or two, she said, and it is to be made in June. She just wanted the design now so she can decide if is what she wants for sure.

Thanks for all your help!

Let me preface this by saying that I've never done this before...

I'd bake a 12x18 cake and divide into thirds. Take 2 of the 12x6s and stack with filling between (lower part of boot). Then cut the last 1/3 into thirds and either stack or torte them on the back part of the boot. Then you could round the top and front part to make it more boot-like.

If you work with fondant, I'd probably cover with that. I'm not sure what to tell you about the people except maybe you could somehow use RI to have heads and arms sticking out of the "windows".

Just a thought.

mom2c-m Thanks so much... that totally makes sense... do you think that the "toe" of the boot should be rounded... how can I explain.... as if it has more of a ball on the top or flat? I looked up some photos of the nursery rhyme and they seem to be more rounded than flat, but, do you think that would be more difficult?

As far as the fondant, I, too, think that it would be easier to use, and would make it look a lot nicer, but, they asked if I could use BCI as they prefer the taste... don't know if I could and still make it look the way that I would like...

I would love to see if anyone else has some ideas for me...

Thanks!!!

I would make color flow little children to stick here and there poking out of the shoe. Maybe make a fondant flap/hole in the toe and Have a little face poking out.

Here is a pic I came up with using google image search.

http://www.lindaslearninglinks.com/oldwoman.jpg

Tell them you need to use fondant to get the right look. Use MMF as it is more pallatable to most people and be sure to have plenty of buttercream underneath it so they can still get the buttercream taste with the cake. You could use shoestring licorice for the boot laces. It would look better if the fondant had some wrinkles in it in order to make it look like an old shoe. Add some windows, maybe some grass poking out from the bottom of the shoe with the grass tip, you could add some climbing vines going up it. Hmmmm, that is all I can think of for now. It sounds like such a fun cake to make!