Hi all. My name's Dave.
...And before two days ago, I'd never baked, frosted, or otherwise even attempted to make a cake. I'm 29 and live in northern Virginia.
Hopefully this won't be too long a post, but I have questions and welcome commentary. And I'll try to break it up into concise paragraphs for easy perusal. =0)
Okay. Here's the backstory:
My girlfriend's sister is getting married. She wants a fun, funky groom's cake for her fiancee - a concept I hadn't heard of until recently. At any rate, she (like many) has fallen in love with 3D sculpted cakes due to the publicity of Charm City Cakes and Duff Goldman, thanks to Food Network.
Chef Duff and company are good, no doubt, but far beyond their budget.
So, I'm an artist in various media (ink, paint, occasionally clay, I was even a tattooist for a few years) and she asked me if I'd give it a shot. I figured 'hey, why not?'...
And now for the cake:
We decided, after thinking about the groom-to-be and what he enjoys, to make the cake in the shape of a classic, 1980s, 8-bit Nintendo system! I love videogames myself so it's not unfamiliar territory for me. The real thing isn't due for a couple of months, this was a trial run.
My materials, knowledge and skill were completely zero. Here's what I used/did.
- two boxes of yellow cake mix, one for each 13x9 layer
- store-bought buttercream frosting
- black tube icing
- red gel icing
- and I made my own MMF using 1 lb of marshmallows and 2 lb of powdered sugar
I baked the cakes in foil pans as I don't own cake pans, made the fondant entirely by hand as I don't have a mixer (also whisked the cake mixes by hand due to this), and rolled the fondant using a wine bottle. Are we seeing a pattern here? I cook plenty, but have nothing in the way of baking under my belt, or in my kitchen.
I tinted the fondant to the proper shade of grey for the Nintendo by adding a small dab of the black icing and pulling it like taffy. Funny but black icing is apparently actually really dark green - I was scared the finished color would be greenish but it worked out great. The darker greys I painted on with a wash of black icing and water - didn't turn out perfect but it's just a first stab. The main fondant color was perfect on the first try, I was ecstatic about that.
I was also working almost entirely from memory - I don't have an old Nintendo anymore, and my internet connection wouldn't stay up so I could find pictures. I got one small picture of the main system and none of the controllers. So "winging it" was the continuing theme.
Here is the finished product along with some in-progress pictures. I still can't find licorice strings at my local stores to make the wires out of, but I'm not serving this test cake until Super Bowl Sunday.
http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c184/jammadave/NES%20Cake/
Problems:
- the MMF was sticky as all getout when I was kneading in the sugar. Greasing my hands with Crisco didn't even seem to help.
- once again the fondant was entirely too sticky after rolling - cornstarch all over the place didn't help, I had to eventually use Crisco all over my cooktop to get it to release after rolling (glass rangetop was the only big, smooth area I had - next time I'll use my dining room table)
Questions:
- How do you get the fondant over a rectangular cake without overlapping or folding at the corners? Is it possible?
- How do you get the edges square and crisp?
- How do you frost the cake such that your strokes don't pull chunks out? This happened a couple times. I think it has to do with having cut the outer "crust" off the cake when shaping it.
- What is the best kind of knife for shaping a 3d cake? I used a 9" bread knife - again, best I could provide.
I'm sure I'll have more questions - and please feel free to comment on what it looks like I did wrong! I want to be able to do this for my girlfriend's sister and make it just incredible.
Thanks in advance for any answers, tips, tricks, etc.
Cheers
Dave
I think you did a great job! Especially considering your lack of equipment!! You may want to try a search on here for pictures and ideas. Lots of people have done game systems and I'm sure they would be willing to help you out!
Hello and welcome you find lots of help here.
You mention how to ice the cake without taking out chucks of the cake =
crumb coat: this is when you take a little frosting and just go over the cake. This will seal the cake and crumbs. Let the cake sit for 15 minutes to a couple of hours. It will crust, then you go over with your final frosting. Now I use viva towels to smooth the cake. You let the cake sit and then lay the paper towel on and smooth with your hand. I also you putty knife (plastic ones- comes in three sizes) also to smooth my cakes. It will just depend on my mood at the time.
Practice is the main thing here. Ask questions if you get stuck.
to shape your cake - freeze you cake it will hard and then you can carve your shape. Also it is good to use a good firm cake. Some cake recipes will fall about when being carved.
To answer you fondant covering the cake and crisp corners not sure but I am sure someone here will help you with that.
good luck and welcome again.
First let me say, welcome to CakeCentral... for your first time doing this, you're off to a fantastic start 
... as far as the sticky with the MMF, adding more confectioner's sugar usually will make it not as sticky, either that or cornstarch kneaded into the MMF works... not sure why yours stayed sticky ... maybe weather conditions there? not sure.... as far as applying MMF to your square/rectangle cake, always lift gently on the corners and smooth them down first... if you can have a cake board the same size as your cake, letting the MMF fall over the cake and off the sides works beautifully for me... remember always corners first then the sides
frosting the cake can be tricky .. keep your spatula always into the frosting and never touch the cake itself (I hope that makes sense, lol)
as far as shaping a cake, I like a serrated knife better, but that is just my preference .. I'll use different types depending on what cake I'm doing...
again welcome to CC and ask questions anytime you have them.. we'll try to answer what we can
First of all, you did a FANTASTIC job on your first cake. The only thing I can suggest is more ps (powdered sugar) if it, your mmf (marshmallow fondant) was sticky.
As for sculpting cakes, its waaayy easier to do if they've been frozen. If I need to sculpt and shape something, I will bake, cool, wrap in saran and then foil and freeze at least over night. I usually will prepare my cakes the day before I need to start decorating.
It is also waayyy easier to frost the cakes as well after they come outta the freezer.
But awesome job...looks like you'll do absolutley fine to me!
Dave,
Welcome to Cake Central!! Wow, I'm very impressed, first cake, first icing and first fondant and honestly, your cake looks really good.
I don't know how much you want to invest as far as equipment goes, but you did a great job with what you have.
I will try to answer some of your questions:
1. How do you get the fondant over a rectangular cake without overlapping or folding at the corners? Is it possible?
You should smooth the corners first and work toward the middle of the side from there. It sounds weird, but it really works.
2. How do you frost the cake such that your strokes don't pull chunks out? This happened a couple times. I think it has to do with having cut the outer "crust" off the cake when shaping it.
It sounds like your icing may have been a little too thick. You can thin it down a little and you should first do a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of icing to lock in the crumbs. Let it sit for a few minutes and then put a final layer of icing on the cake. You want to get your icing as smooth as possible so that your fondant will lay flat.
3. What is the best kind of knife for shaping a 3d cake? I used a 9" bread knife - again, best I could provide.
I use a very long serrated blade bread knife. It is about 14 inches long and I have some other serrated knives to do details.
Hope this helps some...Good luck.
Cindy
Well, I prolly can't answer all your questions, but a few I can help with=) First off, very nice job on your first try, you look like you have a knack for this!! Secondly, did you put in enough powdered sugar to the fondant?? If it is REAL sticky, you might have needed more. I tend to use ALOT of crisco on my hands, rolling pin, and workspace to keep it from sticking...but I know there are some MMF experts here that might be able to figure it out for you! Frosting your cake...what I do is called a "crumb coat" and so does a lot of our members. I take the cooled cake and either wrap it up and freeze it, if I have time, or stick in in the fridge to set the crumbs a bit. Then you will put a thin layer of frosting on the cake. You will then let the frosting harden/set and can put on the frosting as you normally would, and this would keep your cake crumbs/chunks from coming out. Also, for icing your cake, the icing should be a thinner consistency. That also will help from the crumbs/chunks! I have not put fondant on a square shape before, but have read tons about it=) First you want to lay the fondant on top of the cake and smooth the top, then you will start at the corners. Pick one corner and smooth the fondant over the corner. They say to do it with the cup of your hand. Your motion will be, with one hand lift(fluff like a dress) and with the cup of your other hand smooth the edge. The go to the next corner and do the same thing. After both corners are smooth you can smooth the fondant in between them. And just continue around the cake! Sorry I dont have any suggestions on the knife, but someone will. And someone here prolly will be able to explain the things I said a bit better, hehe=) But WELCOME to CC!! Glad to have you with us. Ohh and did you look in the gallery?? Many of our members have done a cake like this and have pics up for you to look at. You can even PM the person of the cake you like and ask them questions=) Hope this helps some, and I am sure more will jump in here! Jen
That looks great for your first cake. I don't have any advice, but here's a picture of an old Nintendo http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/photos/OldNes.php . It looks like you got it right on!
-Heather
Oh, and if you're using black icing or fondant, start with choclate icing or chocolate MMF, by adding some cocoa powder to your MMF for some of the powdered sugar, and it's easier to color black.
-Heather
Dave, hi. You're already getting some really good advice and I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination and wouldn't want to overwhelm you anyway.
I just want to say what a super job you did on the cake ESPECIALLY given that you had to "McGyver" a few things here and there. You have a great memory. I can't even remember what my PS2 looks like unless I go inside and check. lol Also, what a great friend/boyfriend to do this for your girlfriend's family.
Welcome to CC. Hope you stop by regularly and show us your future work. Looks like you just might have stumbled onto and/or started on either a new hobby or career path. Either way, enjoy and good luck.
Wow - thanks for all the advice and support so quickly! A couple more things to clarify and ask:
- The fondant surface itself wasn't sticky when rolling, it was just sticking to the cooktop like there was no tomorrow. I am pretty sure it was just a not-enough-cornstarch issue or something. Crisco worked much better.
- THANK YOU for suggesting I freeze the cake before carving/frosting. That should help immensely!
- I did *try* to crumb-coat with the buttercream, which you can see in one of the pics. This is when I had the icing pull pieces out of the cake here and there on the edges. Do you just thin down your BC with a little water? Also hopefully freezing will help this too.
- Is there a way to add a different color fondant just on a part of the cake? I was thinking of maybe doing a darker grey fondant for the bottom half of the system, but don't know how easily I could cut the top fondant mid-side and then add a second strip below it.
- And currently the controller pads and buttons are just icing. Is gumpaste easier to work with? I'd love to make them completely 3D.
Oh, and I realized I forgot the power and reset buttons on the box. Dang.
Thanks!!
Dave
Hi Dave-
Welcome to CC!! It's nice to see another neighbor here! Where in N. VA are you? I am in Winchester. If there's anything i can do to help answer some of your questions, please let me know!!
Cheryl
I'm still really new to cake, too, so I don't have much advice, except that for the buttercream, if you're using canned frosting, it's different than the buttercream recipes here at CC. You mentioned you didn't have a mixer, so I don't know if you can make BC, but I did find this out in my experimenting. You can get a nice crusting buttercream from canned frosting by adding about a cup or so of powdered sugar to it, if you want ot try a crusting buttercream underneath the MMF. For the crumb icing, you could try thinning the BC with milk or cream, with just a little bit of the canned frosting to see how it comes out.
-Heather
Hi Dave-
Welcome to CC!! It's nice to see another neighbor here! Where in N. VA are you? I am in Winchester. If there's anything i can do to help answer some of your questions, please let me know!!
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl - I'm up in Alexandria, so about an hour from you if you drive like, well, I do.
You will also find it easier to shape if you make a pound cake and not a box mix. box mixes are really crumbly and light which aren't great for carving. Also, store bought buttercream is WAY sticky and "pulls" at the cake. I would make a homemade icing to make it easier and make it fairly thin... hard to describe, but thinner than store bought. For me, especially, I found that having a TRUE large/long spatula helped me TONS and TONS with getting the buttercream on without bringing up crumbs.
can't help you with fondant as I don't work with it, but be careful with rolling out anything on a cooktop or even having sugar near the cooktop as sugar can ruin glass cook top surfaces (according to my stove's manual).
Melissa
WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! You'll see a lot of me on here! Congrats on your first cake!!! I love the Nintendo. You did a great job. As for the fondant make sure that you are using small 16oz bag of marshmallows to 2lbs of sugar although there will be left over sugar that just won't incorporate. What you can do is when you first pour in 1/3 of the bag of sugar, use a couple of wooden or what ever spoons to knead enough to make the marshmallows into a ball then tump it out on the counter that has been greased. Just keep reapplying the crisco and add a little sugar if it just sticks like crazy. It may be too moist. Its a balancing act really. Here is the BEST BEST BEST Website that I use when making fondant and i have never had trouble. I know a couple of other people used this site too and it worked great!!!
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm
We have also been using Chocolate modeling clay in the past couple of days and that is super easy and works like fondant when you cover a cake. you might try that next time and see how you like the texture.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Candy/ChocolateRoses.htm
Congrats again on the cake though! It looks great!
Hi Dave ~ If you don't keep moving your fondant as you roll it out and turning it over, it will stick something wicked. Since you said it wasn't sticky but only to the stove surface.
And yes you can color your fondant different colors. Just take pieces off and do different colors.
Hope this helps you!!
Katy - yes! That's the Marshmallow Fondant recipe I used exactly! Once the sugar was all incorporated, I didn't have a sticking problem again until rolling - but starting that kneading of the sugar into the marshmallows was unbelievably sticky to do by hand.
Thanks for the comments, you guys. I really feel welcome here. Not too many guys around, eh?
No need to buy string candy for your wire, just make it out of the fondant after coloring it black and rolling some of it into a skinny string.
Katy - yes! That's the Marshmallow Fondant recipe I used exactly! Once the sugar was all incorporated, I didn't have a sticking problem again until rolling - but starting that kneading of the sugar into the marshmallows was unbelievably sticky to do by hand.
Thanks for the comments, you guys. I really feel welcome here. Not too many guys around, eh?
There are a few - another Dave too... I think maybe more guys will come into it now that a masculine guy on tv does cakes... I think too many people still think the only cakes around are froo-froo cakes with ribbons and flowers. Plus, a lot of people get into it when the want to do something special for their kids and it just grows from there....
Melissa
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