The bar had been set pretty high. Okay, really high. For my birthday this past September, my boyfriend surprised me with an entire swimming pool [cake] (I have been an avid swimmer my entire life. In fact, swimming is really what brought my boyfriend and I together . . . you know, out-of-breath flirtations in between swim sets . . . romantic). This cake was detailed with lane lines, little stick figure swimmers, flags pronouncing things like "Go Jen!" and "#1," and, last but not least, diving blocks made of rice krispy treats. Yes. The bar had been set very high, but I was determined to match it. Snowboarding was the obvious choice and a friend and I had been eying a marshmallow fondant (think edible play-doh) recipe for quite some time. Now, I thought fondant was a bit scary. The pros on TV use the stuff to make some pretty incredible things and I was afraid that little 'ole me in my quaint suburban house might be a little too low-key for such elaborate, edible structures. But then I said, nahhh.
What did I have to lose . . . besides a couple pounds of marshmallows and several pounds of powdered sugar? (I doubled the recipe but still might be exaggerating some here.) I did a whole lot of searching for images of snowboarding cakes and took inspiration from a very impressive professional cake. I don't even want to show you that one because it is so good that you'll be disappointed with my final one. However! In the name of developing ideas and inspiration and maintaining some amount of blog street cred, I thought it important to show how the idea snowballed (hah!). So, I decided I wanted a cake "mountain," I wanted pine trees, I wanted a fresh powder snowboard track, and, if possible, I wanted a nice blue icy look to the base fondant. Easy . . . ?
It turns out that the process really isn't so bad, but I lucked out. I had a weekend that was pretty open so I could divide the work up into bits and pieces over a few days, which I recommend. Here's how it went:
Saturday: bake cake, let it cool, freeze it (if you don't know why and want a whole lot more of everything-cake tips, look here); make fondant and put it in the fridge to chill overnight
Sunday: color all fondant and play around with it! start making the snowboarder
Monday: take cake out of freezer, cut and assemble, and decorate!
Making fondant is pretty satisfying, once you trust that your greased hands, completely greased countertop, and melted schlop of marshmallows and piles of powdered sugar are going to come together into something magical . . . or just something pretty darn cool.
I drew out my architectural plan for building a cake "mountain." I wanted to use as much of the cake as possible and I decided that a round cake would be best. Cutting it as in the picture above means that only 1/8 of the cake isn't used (meaning it's eaten with your hands while dipping it into leftover frosting, mhmm). If I compliment myself at all on this, it's going to be on coming up with that structure above.
In between the stacked layers, I spread a layer of triple berry jam. My friend and I canned it this summer and it's just about the best jam you'll ever have (more shameless complimenting).
I did achieve my icy blue layer, too! While I was fooling around with coloring pieces of the fondant, I noticed that the color spread out in streaks and if I didn't over knead it, those streaks would stay. Perfect! And thanks to a google image search, I found a great way to make pine trees: roll the green-colored fondant into a cone shape, then cut into it with scissors (and don't be too neat about it, either). The trick is that you have to place the "cones" on the cake first and then cut into them or else you'll squish your pine needles when you're moving the trees around.
I didn't quite roll out the fondant large enough so I had to hand patch the bottom. We're calling them snow drifts.
Now, the snowboarder was a bit tricky, but mainly because the more you work with the fondant, the less stiff and more relaxed it becomes--a good thing to a certain point. I found that I had to form part of him the night before, stick pieces in the fridge, and finish the next night, or else his helmet kept sinking into his head, which was sinking into his body. This snowboarder also tended to slouch more and more the longer he sat on the cake, but I didn't want to have to resort to toothpicks and other things to hold him up. Thank goodness this guy looked kind of natural slouching.
My only real complaint: There was a bit of traveling involved (car ride, significant walking, and a cab ride) and by the time we arrived there was a little tear in the fondant (you can see it below), but for all that, I'll take just a tear!
Happy Birthday, Jimmy!
I'm providing links to the recipes I used for the cake and fondant below. Enjoy!
My notes:
-- I used almond extract instead of vanilla extract
-- 9" round cake pans
-- I cooked the cakes longer and at around 315 degrees so they would cook more evenly
My notes:
-- Buy plastic food-grade gloves if you plan on coloring the fondant. You'll need them!
-- I doubled the batch, which turned out to be totally unnecessary (but does leave me a great excuse for more cake making). One batch is fine for this cake, but doubling it gives you some peace of mind and creative freedom.
Very interesting! I attended a fair last month in one of the event venues Chicago where a lot of designers had made beautiful cakes. I was lost in the designs. This one is just like that. Thanks a lot for sharing the pictures step by step. It is going to be very helpful.
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