So I was asked by a lovely lady called Sandra to make her husband Pete a special cake for his 60th Birthday. Apparently he was so taken with Tilson's Fire Engine cake that the decision was made to surprise him with his own personalised vehicle...and we made 'Pete's F250'.
So we started off with a 3 1/2 inch high real red velvet cake and cream cheese butter cream. So what is a 'real' red velvet cake you ask? Real red velvet does not get it's colour from food colouring but from the natural reaction of the acid in the buttermilk and vinegar with the cocoa. the reaction turned the cake a nice red colour dependent on the amount of cocoa (i use extra as the brown deepens the red). This will only work with real cocoa and not the processed dutch chocolate/cadbury/ bournville kinds.
With my trusty serrated knife I carved the basic shape from the cake, stacking and 'glueing' with butter cream as I go. A nice crumb coat of butter cream helps denote the shape - yep lots of crumbs with red velvet. Looking back I would have liked to make the back end a bit longer and less angled but hey there is always next time.
I then rolled out a thin layer of fondant tinted with the tiniest bit if the maroon colouring, working carefully along the corners and edges keeping it smooth but allowing a bit of movement - this more a caricature of the car than a replica.
With the excess trimmed off the cake was set aside to dry out before adding the airbrushed coats of maroon and silver.
To protect my camera from blow back I decided not to take photos while the airbrushing. So here is the F250 with its coat of maroon mixed with a little bit of silver. Two coats in place and there is a nice depth and shine to the cake. Time to dry again.
The windows where painted in with black powder colour mixed with Rose Alcohol to create a quick dryng matt paint. The trim was added with black fondant and the Clay extruder. All the silver parts are pink fondant covered with a generous brushing of silver shimmer powder.
Side mirrors, ford badge and lights where all added next and finally the tyres. The base of Arnotts Caramel Crown biscuits where wrapped in black fondant and painted with silver 'rims'. To complete the cake the board was covered in brown fondant and when dry was generously brushed with Barco Powder Colours in Chocolate Brown, Crimson, Snow White and Flesh. Blue fondant letter were then added and the cake went off to surprise the birthday boy
I was told afterwards that Pete could not bear to cut in to the cake and was pondering how he could 'laquer' and keep it! Now that is flattery.
XOXO
