Hello CakeCentral friends

First, THANK YOU for all the well wishes, compliments and congrats on my Father's Day contest win I have to say that I was rather surprised my cake got so many votes because there were so many GREAT works of art in the contest! I'm thrilled to be in the winners circle and thank you for voting for me

I've had SOOOOOOO many people asking how I did the wood grain effect on the deck cake so I thought I'd just post how I did it here instead of trying to answer all of you individually.

You might actually find it surprisingly simple......After I tinted the fondant with a tanish color, mixing it in really well, I added dabs of brown tint and just began pulling the fondant. I ONLY pulled in one direction which gives it the wood grain effect. If you pull in another direction, you loose the graining.

After I rolled it out, I actually cut individual "boards" of fondant about 1/4" wide....(yes, I did the whole cake that way). I would only make about a baseball size piece of fondant each time so the graining effect would be slightly different on each board and throughout the cake. I was also careful to leave "joints" where a board would end and another would start, just as in a real deck. I was trying to achieve a realistic look with this cake.....I think it worked

Let me know if any of you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer them!!

Thanks again CC!!

"Still addicted and loving it!!!"
blessings,
elly

Since I sent this out SOOOO late at night (or sooo early in the morning if you want to look at it that way) I thought I'd bump it before it gets lost.

Thanks again CC'ers!
elly

How about the reailings? Did you let them dry first before attaching?

Your seams are so clean, looks incredible!

HOO RAY ... HOO RAH ... ellyrae is number 1!!!
I couldn't stop looking at your cake. I still look at it almost daily. Such precise work like that certainly deserves to be honored. It's just fantastic. I can't say enough how wonderful you did on this creation.
A big Congrats hug to you!!!!!

Patricia~Thank you! Yes, I let the railing driy before putting that part together. Of course it never really completely dried inside but it was enough to hold. I used LOTS of toothpicks in this cake!!

Cakes47~You're very sweet, hugs back to you!!

By the way, my husband and I met for the very first time 20 yrs ago today (tonight really). I JUST surprised him with the news that his deck cake got first place in the contest. He didn't even know I entered it! He just started beaming....LOL.

You deserved to win! You have great talent. I can't believe how perfectly squared the railings are!