AI was asked by my kids elementary school principle to make a cake for the librarians retirement party next Tuesday. I'm at a loss I guess because I'm so nervous! 

I am a hobby baker and do not charge for my cakes but it is soooo important to me that this be great because my babies are always so proud of my cakes and use it as bragging rights lol. 

Here is my level of experience, I wish I could show you but I only have an iPhone and can't upload photos. 

I have done several stacked cakes but not real comfortable with carving. I have used RKT for a football and had pretty good experience with my MMF. I only have round cake pans in 4 sizes and a 13" square pan. It's not in my budget to purchase other pans but I have cut cakes to be the size/shape I needed before. I keep my baking simple and have had no problems but LOTS of compliments on taste (most important part to me) I doubt myself everytime I do a cake but everyone always goes nuts over them...even people who dont like me enough to lie lol. 

Thank you so much for your help!  Val

You could make several books. Bake some 2" deep cakes in your square pan.  Slice in half and sandwich together with buttercream icing. Chill them, cut into various book sized pieces,  and ice three edges with buttercream marked with lines from a decorating comb.  

Get some fondant in different colours.  Roll each cover in one piece and wrap around with 1/4" overhang. 

Get a large cake board, extra heavy weight (or glue together two heavy cardboards).

To put this together, use some chocolate icing to write the "names" of books making the titles  "patient", "wise", "helpful", etc   Spread these across the large cake board as if on a desk.  Stack the books with foil covered cardboard under each one. 

So now you can be as ambitious as you like. Make some kid figures out of fondant and hide them between the books.  Or some flowers. 

The first thing I thought of was books but make the titles fun and funny, like

What Not To Read

Speak Up, No Whispering

The Great Outdoors

Arranging Your Home By The Dewey Decimal System

If you think he or she may have a sense of humor, it will add a lot to the presentation!

Good luck!

Theresa

I also thought about a pile of books on a desk with her sitting around the desk with some funny glasses on with her hands on her cheek looking up as if she's day dreaming about her retirement with a little smirk on her face.  Okay, I do get a little crazy with my ideas :-)

Ahttp://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=s-iK3lhpUh0

AThank you all fort your helpful responses! I'm sorry about the delay in replying, about 2 hours after I posted I had two babies tested positive or the flu so I havnt had alot if CC time! I like the stacked book idea but when I cover the top and edge with fondant and leave an overhang will it not droop down? I like the staggered book look but I'm worried about the edges hanging off falling, so I was thinking more like three books each smaller than the one before. I also like the look of the books on the wood grain desk but I only have ply board and was thinking of covering it in woodgrain but I havnt done that before either. Also I thought a stack of books on the desk with a six inch clock in the upper corner with the saying "time is on your side" on the desk between the two would be cute? I always look at projects like this as impossible but the few times I have jumped outside the box it always turns out. I told the prenciple that if this fell through I would have a 2 tiered cake covered in rosettes as a stand by and she was fine with that so that takes some of the pressure off lol.

Hope your kids get well soon.

Making a cake "book"--if the fondant overhang is as small as it would be on a real book, then don't worry.  I should have said that each book needs to sit on a piece of cardboard the same size, that also helps the little bit of overhang to behave well.  Wrap these pieces of cardboard twice with foil so that all surfaces are covered.

If you are pressed for time, then make the sheet cake with rosettes on the sides.  You can make just a few smaller books for the top (total of one layer of square cake).  Lay them at an angle and do not worry about stacking.  With small books, you don't need to worry about supports either. Maybe model a pair of fondant legs/feet  that would stick out from under one of them...labelled "peace and quiet" or something like that. 

ASo would I wrap the bottom one side and top in fondant? Or just the top and one side?

Bottom, one side, and top to make it really look like a book.  Then you can indent the spine with lines as if it was hand bound. 

AThe librarian came down with the flu so the party was rescheduled for today. I have made one practice book and I have seen better butt I've also seen worse lol...fondant, buttercream, ganache and cakes made and I'm ready to go...I think the top book is going to be bright yellow with a wide black band going around the top with a slightly smaller white band that says "retirement for dummies" and I'm just going to do ABC and 123 on the other 2 probably...I got the food writers but I mess em up everytime trying to print on them...thank y'all and I'll let you know how it turns out

AIt turned out great and they loved it. I wish I could post a picture cause I'm really proud of it! Thank everyone for your help!!

AAll you have to do to upload from your iPhone is hit the button that looks like a mountain with a moon beside it, it says "imbed image" and there is an option to upload from your device, or enter a URL. Just upload from device and it will go to your album on your phone. Easy peasy!

AHmmm...when I tap the mountain I do get the "imbed image" box but it just says enter URL, I tapped that with it empty and it just goes back...I tried it in desktop and mobile view and from the gallery homepage and same thing.

AMine looks like this

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/2907065/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AI hate to beat a dead horse but I have tried and cannot find it...I have a box that says something like enter photo URL...this is driving me nutts lol!!

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