In my spare time I crew for a hot air balloon. This Sunday the pilot and crew are having a potluck dinner. I'd love to bring a hot air balloon cake.

I plan on making the basket out of cake. I'd like to make the envelope (the balloon part) out of RKT covered in fondant to resemble the balloon I crew for.

My question is should I shape the envelope out of RKT or should I make sheets of RKT, 'glue' them together and then carve the shape? If gluing them together is the preferred method, do I use buttercream, or what to stick them together?

TIA

I really don't know anything about this, but my first thought was that
the RKT would be way too heavy to sit above the basket bottom without
some really sturdy support. If the RKT are not really going to be eaten, then why make them out of RKT? I would just cover a big styrofoam ball
with fondant. Even fondant will be heavy, but certainly not as heavy as RKT.

Just my opinion.

I would shape them in one solid piece, maybe use a bowl for the rounded top part of the balloon and then just build from that point.


I think Royal Icing may be a stronger glue then butter cream if needed.

vicky- my first thought was that RKT wouldn't be heavy, but the styrofoam ball idea would probably be a better solution! Thanks for the idea.

After reading Vicky's response I'd have to agree that this will be pretty heavy. You could actually use a real balloon too.

..moving to Ideas forum.

I ended up going with the RKT. It doesn't seem too heavy at this point, we'll see once it's covered in fondant. I have a styrofoam ball on standby just incase I need it.

Good luck and make sure you have sturdy supports!!

I'm rethinking the construction. I think I'll make the basket out of RKT also and use four 1/4 dowels as supports for the envelope, driving them right through the basket and then the cake. The cake only needs to serve about twelve people, so maybe I'll do a two tier cake with the top tier a dummy, a 6 inch dummy and an eight inch cake tier. This should give me enough support don't you think? I don't care if I have more cake than I need.

Instead of having the top tier a dummy, why not make that tier the basket?

I don't do tier'd cakes, but my thinking is, all that RKT is going to be way too heavy for a single layer cake let alone a dummy cake and then the RKT basket and envelope top.

I liked your original idea of basket is the cake and dummy envelope.
Unless you were to decorate the bottom cake layer like grass or ground.
Otherwise you are getting way too much cake/RKT.

This is only my opinion, but sometimes it opens up more ideas and thoughts.

BTW I did the envelope in one molded piece of RKT and it came out perfect! I couldn't be happier with it. I used one of the new Crate and Barrel bowls I got for Christmas to help with the molding process. I love it when things work the way you want them to!

That's great that that part worked out. Now envision how heavy the basket part will be if that is RKT also. This is what you are thinking of topping a soft layer cake on top of.

Looking forward for photos of your hot air balloon cake.It will surely be great.

Yep, it was the worst year of my life too, but he is home now too. But now my 17 year old is joining. Ugh. This is the one time I wish my sons weren't so patriotic, but I'm glad they are. And we will all get through it.
Yes, I am very proud of both of them.

You were right! The RKT was very heavy. Next time I will make the dowels shorter and stronger, or use PVC pipe instead. Here's a link to the finished cake.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1550314.html

I think it turned out great and I love your colors. I had a feeling the RKT would be too heavy. But hey, lesson learned right? I know "I" always learn from each cake. They will love it I'm sure. Your basetweave turned out great too. Congrats!