As an American, I've always felt like Halloween was the kick-off to the holiday season. Once you get through Halloween, you're off and running to the indulgent joys of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've had to adjust my perspective a bit living in Canada, with Thanksgiving falling early in October... but that's cool, it's fantastic to have a little early preview of all the goodies to come.
I wanted to make a Halloween cake this year that wasn't too labor-intensive, since holidays with a 3 and 5 year old - while fun - are still quite a bit of work, getting them prepared, dressed, fed, partied, rested, etc. This spooky yet sweet mummy fit the bill. He even has lavender eyes to keep him fun and friendly, perfect for a 3 year old who continues to be terrified of everything that moves.
I wanted to make a Halloween cake this year that wasn't too labor-intensive, since holidays with a 3 and 5 year old - while fun - are still quite a bit of work, getting them prepared, dressed, fed, partied, rested, etc. This spooky yet sweet mummy fit the bill. He even has lavender eyes to keep him fun and friendly, perfect for a 3 year old who continues to be terrified of everything that moves.
I covered a 3-layer, 9-inch round chocolate cake with white fondant, and then cut out an oblong piece of black fondant, to which I affixed (with water) simple circular eyes, also cut out of fondant. After I applied that to the side of the cake, I rolled out long, thin strips of fondant that I cut somewhat haphazardly with a pizza cutter into strips that were anywhere from 3/4" to 1 1/2" wide, and anywhere from 4" to 10" long. I started out by framing the eyes, and then rather randomly laid on the strips (affixing with water) till it was covered. Easy breezy cheddar cheesy.
In a complete non sequitur, I had a request last week for a Scottish tartan cake. It was for a friend of a friend's mom's 70th birthday. She had no specific tartan preference since they descend from "a mishmash of clans". So she left the color and pattern up to me.
Not having any tartan training, I turned to The Great Internets. For the first time ever, The Internets failed me. I found no good tartan cake examples to steal. Er, borrow. The majority of the tartan cakes I found had either a plaid ribbon wrapped around them or a plaid edible image applied to them. Neither of these was particularly up my alley, so I dared to venture out on my own.
My Google search of Scottish Tartans revealed this one, which just happened to have the fewest colors of all:
In a complete non sequitur, I had a request last week for a Scottish tartan cake. It was for a friend of a friend's mom's 70th birthday. She had no specific tartan preference since they descend from "a mishmash of clans". So she left the color and pattern up to me.
Not having any tartan training, I turned to The Great Internets. For the first time ever, The Internets failed me. I found no good tartan cake examples to steal. Er, borrow. The majority of the tartan cakes I found had either a plaid ribbon wrapped around them or a plaid edible image applied to them. Neither of these was particularly up my alley, so I dared to venture out on my own.
My Google search of Scottish Tartans revealed this one, which just happened to have the fewest colors of all:
After testing how to layer on the strips without involving excessive basket weaving techniques (using strips of leftover fabric from my sewing box), I rolled and cut out long, thin strips of fondant (maybe this wasn't a complete non sequitur after all) and laid them on my white fondant-covered vanilla cake.
Granted, it's not an exact tartan replica of any recognizable Scottish clan, but still, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Happy 70th birthday, Libby!!
And now, without further ado, let's get these holidays started and laissez les bons temps rouler!
Happy 70th birthday, Libby!!
And now, without further ado, let's get these holidays started and laissez les bons temps rouler!
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