I Broke My Ballerina's Foot... :(
Decorating By sweetheart76 Updated 16 Jun 2010 , 1:44pm by ddaigle
Hi guys! I'm new to cake decorating and enjoying this hobby until... today. sigh.
I had my first cake order from a good friend and the theme was "Swan Lake"... and well, everything went BAD... the fondant wasn't cooperative at all, and fell apart (too soft) on my first attempt. I salvaged whatever I could and junked the rest that had buttercream on them. My second attempt at it wasn't great too 
This was the worst-looking covering I had done for a cake (covered about 8 cakes so far, all for gifts!). Very disappointing.
But the worse was yet to come. I had great ideas for this cake... like, how a ballerina would be perched on top of it one-footed. Yeah, I think I got too ambitious. Made all items out of gumpaste a week in advance, and did a trial assembly this morning before I drove it to the venue. The toothpick and the foot couldn't hold the weight of, well, just about the whole ballerina! I tried stuffing a straw and jamming the toothpick at the edge of the foot in it, didn't work as well. Meddled with it a tad too much, and the foot broke in front of me. My heart just sank!!!
In the end, I had no choice but to improvise - broke one leg (ouch!) and mended her foot with lots of edible glue, and put her in a kneeling position. It didn't look that bad but I had really wanted her in that classic ballerina pose! Perhaps someone could point out what I did wrong - I am getting very discouraged *sobs* Thanks guys!!! 
the most important lesson in cake decorating is how to go with the flow and react to your mistakes so no one but you will ever know. and it looks like you know that one already
the cake looks good to me, particuarly the ballerina! no one apart from you knows that wasnt how you wanted her posed.
for a figure like that, you need an internal support structure going in, im not sure exactly how - i try to make sure my figures are supported by the cake/ other objects cause they are fragile!
xx
thanks brincess_b! haha, cover up is what i try to do when i screw up. see that black ribbon? it was there for a reason! ^^ thanks for the encouragement, i really appreciate it! usually i have figurines supported by the cake itself, but this time i had a vision (which didn't work, of course ahha!). now if i could just figure out the support part, that would be awesomest!
hi ngfcake - here's what i did: made undies, let dry, made one leg, inserted toothpick at edge of foot, inserted longer skewer thru undie and half of upper leg, cut of top remains (so ya, there's one part of the leg that was not supported - the shin area). made body, drove skewer through body, let dry, made arms, attached to body, let all dry (i assume it's dry after a week? hehe). head was made separately and attached to the skewer coming out at the neck area. conclusion: there was no one skewer that ran all the way through - all were separate pieces. hmm. good idea, now why didn't i think of that i wonder if the foot would still hold the weight of the ballerina tho. let me try when i get my courage back
I'm no expert, but I would have built the whole ballerina arround a skewer. First model the leg, let dry, then the body, but the skewer would have to go all the way up to the head. Fondant/gumpaste can be heavy!!
ETA: Your cake is beautiful!!
exactly. but if using gumpaste which IMO is very heavy you might have even wanted to use a dowel rod. (the hardware store sells them in LOTS of different diamaters. so it would not have to be like the dowel rods used to support the cake.
I think she looks cute sitting. But i feel your disappointment at not getting to bring your vision to cake-life.
exactly. but if using gumpaste which IMO is very heavy you might have even wanted to use a dowel rod. (the hardware store sells them in LOTS of different diamaters. so it would not have to be like the dowel rods used to support the cake.
I think she looks cute sitting. But i feel your disappointment at not getting to bring your vision to cake-life.
thanks tesso! i definitely will try the skewer and the dowel method on my next trial run. in your opinion, what should i be using other than gumpaste? that's the only medium i know how to use for figurines for now hehe. should i be using rkt instead? thanks again so much!
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