So I am going to be making my first cake for someone that I do not know. I am confident but still nervous. The cake is to feed 100 people and I will probably be making two cakes. The cake is for someone that is retiring from the Navy and she also has a birthday two days later, so I will probably be doing a retirement cake and a birthday cake. I think that I would rather try and make the 100 servings all into one cake so I have the focus only on that cake. What do you think? I don't really know if I can make the cake and it look right if I were to make it big enough to serve 100 people unless I made the anchor cake and had it on top of a large sheet cake. What do you think?.. There is a picture below of what I will be duplicating.



Any tips or suggestions would be helpful. I have never colored anything gold but have seen many threads about what to use etc... but would love to hear tips on that also.

I plan on covering the cake in fondant and I want to make the USN letters stand up properly over the anchor...any tips on ways to do that? I was thinking I could use thin dowels to support the letters but I am sure there are better suggestions.


Have a Great Friday!

Oh OK so if I'm reading correctly you want the "USN" and anchor to stand up like a topper?

Depending on your time frame you could make it out of fondant/gumpaste and then paint it w/ golddust/vodka.

Another option would be to make it out of Royal Icing by printing out that insignia, placing the picture under a piece of wax paper and pipe over it. Allow to dry and then paint.

I was also thinking that you could do an edible image, however if you want it to be 3d I guess that won't work.

Maybe someone else would have a better idea.

As far as the cake sizes, did they specify a certain cake shape? I'm not a huge fan of "sheet" cakes so I'd probably make it either a tiered square or round design.

Good luck, don't be nervous you'll be fine and everyone will love it!
Deb

Thank you so much for your response. I am sorry that what I typed was not clear. No I don't want the anchor to be standing up. I am going to carve a cake in the shape of an anchor and that will be the cake but then I want to put the USN across it and as you can see it hangs off.... so I was wondering what the best way would be to prop the USN letters up. (The parts that are not laying on the anchor.

I do not really care for sheet cakes either which is why I want to carve the anchor. I thought about making a two tier cake and then making a big anchor out of rice crispy treats and have it leaning up against the cake. The customer has asked for the carved anchor though. Thanks again!

Although anything is possible, I am not sure you can get 100 servings out of that design. You are right though about needing a second cake to have enough to serve 100. Or you can even do cupcakes in coordinating colors to have enough cake. That way you concentrate on the tougher part ie, the anchor and then the cupcakes will come easier. The reason I personally wouldn't want to do the cake and carve it to leave only the anchor would be the design lends itself to almost no cake, and you would be disposing of the rest perhaps. The only other suggestion would be to consider making a tiered cake with the anchor as the topper as previously suggested.

Just a carved anchor to feed 100 would have to be HUGE!..LOL I would do a huge sheet cake(not sure on the size for 100 but I know someone here will be able to help with that) And then I would do a half sheet cake and carve the anchor out of that and decorate it to the gills and stack it up in the middle of the sheet cake. Maybe a nice rope boarder around the whole thing that ties in the black and gold and silver somehow.

Oh I completely understand now, it wasn't your "writing" it was my "reading" believe me it was before my first cup of coffee.

I like that you're planning on carving the anchor and I see your concern about supporting those letters. How about making the U S N out of Chocolate? The U and N being on the outside of the design could be supported underneath.

It's too bad the client is opposed to using RKT, that would be a lot easier to do.

Hey, maybe you could talk her into the "Duff" way of doing hard carved designs and use "styro" covered in fondant. You could say, "it's not cake so you can keep the insignia forever".