This large cake was carved to look like a medieval style wine cask or barrel, in a wood stand. It was served at a dessert revel during a Medieval/Renaissance Ball, to celebrate the annual event's 21st birthday.

It was constructed as a hidden 2 tier cake, with the tiers stacked before the fondant was added. The upper part was made by cutting two 10", and one 9" layer in half, then putting them on the board cut side down (largest in the middle, smallest at the ends), and carving from there to get the upper half of the barrel, with 8" diameter at the ends and 10" in the middle. The lower tier (bottom half of barrel + stand) was carved from 2 stacks of 3 7x11" layers put next to each other to make an 11x14 block to carve from.

Ivory fondant was textured with a wood grain mat and then hand painted with brown gel food color diluted with vodka to get the wood tone. The metal rings and tap were made of dark chocolate fondant, then painted with roman silver luster dust to get the metallic sheen.