From Sketch to Cake

Alisa found me on ksl and asked if I could make a cake for Ashtyn's 16th Birthday Party. She had told Ashtyn she was going to make the cake, but decided it would be cool to surprise her with a custom cake instead. Her birthday party was a week before Halloween. They were having a Halloween costume party at the Wheeler Farm. Ashtyn loves gothic colors, Halloween, and her costume for the party was a masquerade ball gown with a gold mask. When she told me those details my head starting spinning with ideas...always a good sign. Alisa gave me full creative control so I was WAY excited to do this cake. I started sketching that night.

Here are the sketches I made of the cake. I had a few different ideas.

Alisa and her husband came by to help me decide on a final design.

This is the final sketch before I started making the cake.

I had to adjust a few things from the drawing in order to make it work, like the drapes and the tombstones didn't fit as they were drawn. I had originally planned for the feather to black, but everywhere I went was out of black feathers (being Halloween and all). Good thing. I think the red is perfect!

Everything, except the feather and the wires the bats are on, is edible. The skulls, bats, and mask are made of gumpaste, which is basically like fondant, but it dries and hardens.

The skulls are my favorite! Hollowed out eyes and gold ruffles!

It was a bit tricky to get the mask to stay in that position. I used a dowel about 4 inches long, painted it gold with edible paint, stuck a ball of gumpaste on the end and stuck that into the cake and glued the ball to the mask with royal icing. It took several tries to make it stick, but it did, even through delivery!

Alisa brought Ashtyn with her to pick up the cake. Ashtyn was so pleased with it, she gave me a huge hug. The smile on her face was the coolest. They were happy to report that everyone LOVED the cake. Red velvet with white-chocolate cream filling? Who wouldn't love that?