Boot Camp Cake for a Hero’s Send-off

Recently, I was asked to do a cake for a young man going off to boot camp. And while I always try to please customers, I especially wanted this one to be perfect. It seemed like my tiny little way to say thank you.

boot camp cake fondant modeling chocolate boots 2

I wanted to make the boots look as real as possible, so I elected to make them out of modeling chocolate rather than actual cake. (Had they been entirely cake, the cake would have gone stale before I had time to finish all the detail work. Making them out of chocolate ensured I could work on them at night after work over the span of a few days.) And seeing how they are life-size boots, I decided to have the center be styrofoam so that they were lighter, since I knew I was planning on putting the boots on top of a cake.

how to make modeling chocolate bootsTo make the camouflage fondant, I colored chunks of fondant various shades of green and brown. I rolled them into small balls and then placed them close together. (It looks like this would be a fast process, but placing them together was a bit like a puzzle. Of course, you wouldn’t want to place to of the same color directly next to each other. Otherwise you don’t get the camo effect.)

Once the balls were placed, I rolled them out with a rolling pin. Voila…. camouflage fondant!

making camouflage fondant for boot camp cake

Lastly, I added the details. An American flag draped near the boots, and “Semper Fi” written on the side. For that I cut the yellow letters with an exacto knife and then laid them on red fondant and then cut around the words. Ta-da!

semper fi fondant cake

So thank you, Christopher, and everyone else. Thank you for your sacrifices in order that the rest of us may live freely. boot camp cake fondant modeling chocolate boots

Carving a Police Car Cake

In honor of National Police Week, I decided to make a police car cake and bring it to our local station. And though it ended up looking like something out of a 1950s gangster movie, I would imagine they ate it anyways. 🙂 So after a bit of research, which involved a short-lived numbskull idea to go to the police station and take photographs of their cars (I can imagine the headlines: “Local teacher arrested for suspicious behavior in police station parking lot”), I decided on a design and set to work.

STEP 1: Begin with a ridiculously thick pound cake batter. There are FOURTEEN EGGS in these two pans. I mean….is that even legal? The comments on the recipe I used here said the cake was delicious, but I guess the yolk’s on me if this cake isn’t egg-xactly everything it’s cracked up to be.

(Sorry. I’ll stop.)
(And yes, the cake was egg-shell-ent.)

pound cake batter

STEP 2: Once the cakes are cooked, layer ’em up and start to carve! Be careful, because you can’t ever put cake back on. (Lesson learned the hard way.)

carving a police car cake STEP 3: Frost!police car cake carving with frosting STEP 4: Add the fondant details…

fondant details of police car cake STEP 5: Deliver to the police station in honor of National Police Week. Thank you for all that you do!

police car cake in parking lot police car cake

Cute Cutout Cake Cookies

in process royal icing cake cookies It was only a matter of time before I combined cookies and cake, right? I just love this adorable cookie cutter from Cookie Cutter Kingdom!

flooding cake cookie with royal icing Trying to make each cookie have an individual personality was a little harder than I thought it would be!

individual cake cookies royal icing Once the cookies were hardened, I added sticks to the back and stuck them in this little bin.

bunch of tiered cake cookies decorated with royal icing tiered cake cookie sprinkles royal icing And now that I think about it, using white icing would make them into adorable mini wedding cakes! I can’t wait until the next bridal shower! 🙂