I have a client asking for an unusual wedding cake.  She would like "Mr & Mrs Hoggern" actually made out of cake. As in, the letters, which would stand up, would be made from cake.  Not Crispie treats, cookies, or doughnuts, but cake.

I have never had to turn a customer away because their idea was unachievable, but I fear this may be a step too far.  can anyone think how I might go about this design? Sections like the 'G's, and the '&' scare me a little, cake suspended above empty space seems like total madness.

Has anyone got any experience in this kind of thing? I'd really like to take the job on as the couple are well connected and there would be a fair amount of publicity surrounding the wedding. If I could pull this off it'd be great for business.

ANY help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers guys, I'd owe you big time.... :)

Your letters would have to a great strong sub-structure. For instance if was made with a strong metal you could place the cake on top of the open letters and that area would remain open. But wow, this would be a lot of precise work......and it wouldn't feed that many people. If the letters were 20" tall and 6' deep you'd only be able to put cake on the flat surfaces of each letter.

I'm sure Mike could do it.............but wow, this is not going to be easy!

AHow much is the customer's budget?

AI would not even attempt it, myself. First thought: that is not a pretty wedding cake and will be no fun! Second thought: how the heck are you supposed to transport it? Third thought:WHY?

I suppose you could have boards cut into letters and put a little leg on it so it leans back a bit, like a picture frame, and the put your (firm, dense) cake on that, and cut it I to strips and fill and crumb coat and freeze then carve around your board to get the shape, cover in icing then fondant.... But why? WHY?? And then, how do you transport, and what if they slide?

For the right price, it is achievable.  It would be very expensive. Labor intensive.  There would need to be a couple of trials ahead of time  for particular letters.  All of this would be costed to the client.

An initial thought would be chocolate backing and covered in ganache or maybe couverture chocolate, like petit-fours, before fondant or frosting.

A

Agreed, with enough of a budget this could be a very impressive and unique piece.

Similar idea to Annabakes- cut 2 letters out of cardboard (1 for bottom and one for template) layer cake as usual and cut to rough size. Cut dowels to the height/ thickness of the letter when finished (this will hopefully keep the cake from sliding off the cardboard when propped up) Attach (this is an unknown how to do) cut dowels to the bottom cardboard. Place cake on dowels (or cardboard w/ dowels and then flip cake piece) and place template on top. Trim. Cover with fondant or ganache and pray? Transport flat and tilt into place at location. You could create a type of tray or support to keep the letters from falling in all different directions.

Or- similar to Stitches- use a thin wood veneer type substance or perhaps a type of flexible but food safe plastic to create and "outline" the entire inside and out of a letter, like a little pan, and insert the cake in that. Think about a cookie cutter, only bigger, attached to a (same shape) piece of cardboard backing. Then cover the whole shebang with fondant. When it comes time to serve, flip upside down and un-mold, then cut.
 

Still a tricky thing!

ACould be very cool. It's doable, but as.mentioned before, requires strong support and careful planning. This.would be a couple grand to start off, just off the top of my head.

I really hope that you can jump into my blog... I do have some interesting tips for you.

cakedeco13.blogspot.com 

A

Ditto

If it were me, I was thinking off the back that I would have to create individual support structure per letter. Kind of like making the floating beer, etc cakes. Thats a lot of time and work= $$$$$. Post a pic if you decide to go for it. GL

AI think what Erica said may work... I'm picturing large cookie-cutters with a back on them, filled with cake and fondant covering all of it, cookie cutter included. Now, as she said you would have to have the cake lean back a little so it didnt fall out, but I think that could work. Serving would just be like serving a cake from a pan. It would be very cool. Please post pics!!!

Is it an option to just use "blocks" of cake?  My initial thought was a double barrel square cake in a dark color with the letters distending on the front side of the cake in a light or bright color.  The focal point would still be the letters without sacrificing servings or stability.  Much more impressive, obviously, to actually be cut out of cake, but a cheaper and less worrisome option anyway.

phew! I agree with a lot of replies here- how would you transport it? support system? budget?

The main thing that concerns me is there are soooo many letters to it. Maybe suggest doing initials? If it were me, I think I would pass on this request and suggest something different. I think it would be too much of a headache and way to stressful!

But I do like the ideas on here of propping up the letters a couple inches up?

Pretty hard request I must say!
 

I had a customer set on this sort of idea and when I explained the cost involved and sketched out a really adorable cake he could have for almost half the price, he realized he'd be happier with the other option. The first letter was going to be an upper case E, btw.

Was the customer dead against the letters lying down? That would be much easier and cheaper, of course. Perhaps the customer doesn't realise the difference in difficulty between those two options.

AIt might be just me, but I don't think of the standing letters as being so skinny that they would not stand by themselves. I think of them being blocks of cake with a depth of 8 to 10 inches to the back. Fronts and top carved. Like this, but four times the thickness of the letters. The big problem I see is that they want their name too. Mr&Mrs could also be just one rectangular cake with the letters carved on the front and top.

http://www.pipii.co.uk/white-wooden-mr-mrs-letters.html

Of course I hope they have enough money to pay for all that carving and covering that cake.

AOr just their monogram ex: mHn Then have extra cake in another room.

AI watch a lot of Ace of Cakes and the Ultimate Cake Challenge... When they have to make something stand up, they build the basic form out of wood and then layer the cake on and around the design and then cover the whole thing in fondant... That's what I saw in my head when you described their idea... Keep in mind, I've never tried this myself (I teach high school Home Ec., I don't own a bakery or anything like that)... I see, for example, the letter M as a wooden structure with a solid base and little shelves every 6 to 8 inches up the sides to hold the cake steady (if this structure is really tall, the shelves would keep excessive pressure off the bottom layers and it would keep it from settling and cracking). The structure would have to be a fat M so you could arrange squares of cake around it and then carve it to specific shape you want (and it would allow for a little curve here and there if you wanted it to look fancy)... Just an idea... I will say, the & might be prettier as modeling chocolate than cake... Almost too many curves for cake... Pease post pictures of what you decide to do!

A*please, not "pease"

OK...I am going to be in the minority here but I personally think this is a stupid idea.  I don't think it will look good and I wouldn't even waste my time trying to achieve it because you'll probably never get paid enough  given the trial & error, stress and final time it will take to execute such a cake. 

My question is, where did the bride get this idea?  If she saw it somewhere then you need to find out who did it so you can learn how it was done.  If she pulled it out of her @%& ...er...'imagination'...then I would tell her I'd like to be able to fly without an airplane too...doesn't mean I should jump off a building just to see if I can! 

And worst of all...say this is successful...do you really want to be the one that starts a trend that everyone will hate you for? (I am being facetious here...but yes...I would hate you) 

Again this is just my twisted opinion!  I wish you luck no matter what.  

A

It's likely that the customer has no idea how complex this cake will be, but it would probably be worth it if the customer's budget was around the $2000 mark.

AIf the bride would be agreeable to having the letters similar to this Barn cake, maybe that would work for you. It's not as impressive as individual letters, with the negative spaces cut out, but it could still look really pretty in the right colors. http://www.flickr.com/photos/leckieanne/4566597556/

Ahttp://paintedacrescakes.blogspot.com/2011/09/creating-3d-letter-cake.html This person shows how she did her cake. It seems like the letters need to be blocky to make it easy.

AI haven't read all the replies so I'm sorry if I duplicate someone's ...what if you did wooden cut outs of the letters as the "ck board" for each letter and put "shelves" built in every few inches and stack the cake on the " shelves."

A

AI think this is a stupid idea.