I have a cake for the 4th of July and would like to try to do the explosion effect on the top where it looks like the fondant is ripped and something is bursting out of it. Hope that makes sense. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't have a picture to share but I saw a cake at a 4th party last year on which the baker had fashioned a fireworks display on top of the cake with a bunch of thin wires arching out with tiny balls of gum-paste on the tips that were dusted with super pearl in various colours. I know I'm not describing it well but the effect was spot on.

After you cover the cake with fondant just cut the fondant on top in a * (asterix or star) design. Then peel back the fondant pieces.

I just did this on a buttercream cake. The top was an 8-inch square. I cut a fondant square, mixed with CMC, and used an exacto knife to cut the center. It looked like triangles coming up. I shaped the pieces over balled-up saran and let dry. When the square was fairly dry, I put it on top of the cake. I took some gumpaste and made separate triangles to use as filler. Painted those gold and just stuck them around the opening in the spaces. It looked pretty cool.

brush the top of your cake with simple syrup, cut out 2 circles of about 3-4" place both the circles on top of each other in the middle of the cake, and then brush only the top circle with the syrup.

cover your cake as usual with fondant and then use a sharp knife to cut a cross into the top and then again another one, making 8 small triangles. ( you will see the round mark edge under the fondant cover of the other fondant circles underneath, but its all good cause when you fold the bits back.. it won't be seen.)
take care though to cut through just the top circle though and not through to the cake. make sure you have a small spatula or something to help you grab it and for you to lift them up.. I didn't.. and my fingers went all thumbs because when I did it on my daughters cake I found it awkward.. so i just cut it, and yes it went through to the cake. but I just filled the middle of it up with some icing.. and put some cachous into it.. and with the springers.. it still looked great !

I have literally just done a cake like this.

After I ganached my cake I rolled out 2 pieces of fondant in different colours. I brushed the top of my ganached cake with water and then applied the first piece of fondant (I rolled each circle to about 2mm thick). I took an exacto knife and trimmed round the edge so that the fondant was the exact size of the cake. Then I took a parchment circle and sat it in the centre of the cake (I used a circle that was smaller than the cake) and then wet the fondant that wasn't covered by the parchment circle. I then carefully placed the next circle of fondant on top, making sure that the parchment circle didn't move. Now at this stage in my cake, I wet the top of the fondant and then covered with another circle of fondant - you can either do this or completely cover the whole cake with your final layer of fondant. I was panelling the sides, so I didn't need to cover my cake completely.
I then took a parchment circle that was a tad smaller than the parchment circle that was hidden under the fondant, and marked all the points on it (8 in total) and laid it on top of my cake, took an exacto knife and scored the lines into the top of the fondant. I didn't cut through the parchment, I just marked the lines. I then took away the parchment and cut into the fondant until I could feel the parchment paper underneath (try not to cut through it, it's not hard) and sliced my fondant accordingly. I then peeled back the segments and supported them with cotton wool (I wet the very tips of my segments and stuck them to the cake to stop them fall back again). Once you've done that, you can just remove the parchment paper to reveal your bottom layer of fondant. I then panelled the side of my cake with different colours of fondant strips.

I hope I've explained that ok. It's actually really really easy to be honest. Here is a picture so you can see what I mean:


Fathers Day Cake by nanefy, on Flickr[/url]

Thanks nanefy for the pic and the detailed instructions. Very helpful. The tip about the inner parchment circle was great too!

Thank you nanefy you just helped figure out how and what I am going to do for the top tier of my cake due on fourth.