Jack’s Big Music Show themed cake

This weekend I began work on the characters for the Jack’s Big Music Show birthday cake. Because they are made from gum paste, they are the one part of the cake I can get a head start on. The first thing I did was color the gum paste with gel food colors to match the colors I would need for the various parts of the characters. I then shaped the gumpaste into the various parts that comprise the characters (head, ears, eyes, nose, body, arms, legs). I attached the ears, eyes and noses to the heads using egg white to help adhear the ears and nose. I allowed the contructed heads, the bodies, the arms and the legs all to dry over night.

I also made their instruments in the same fashion:

After the parts were dry, I used powdered food coloring to ad detail to the instruments, particularly the drum set. I painted the symbols using gold metalic powder mixed with a drop of vodka.

Then I put the characters together using toothpicks to attach the heads to the bodies and floral wire to attach the arms. I also used toothpicks to attach the guitar and the accordian to the characters and egg white to attach their hands to the instruments.

After I make the cake and cover it in fondant, I will attach the legs to the characters using floral wire and the drumset and characters to the cake using toothpicks. The yellow character will also get hair made from cotton candy.

Everything’s looking good so far…

My fourth commission is due April 1st, making it the second commissioned cake that I will complete. It’s for a baby boy’s first birthday. His mother is throwing him a Curious George themed birthday party and asked for a cake that can feed 40-50 people. Her first thought was that she was interested in sheet cakes, so I sketched out a couple of options for her:

She liked the balloon concept, but after giving it a second thought, decided she was more interested in a round cake. So, I sketched out two round cake options: a single tier cake and a double tier cake.

The lastest feedback is that she is liking the single tier option. As for flavor, we’re looking at a vanilla cake with whipped cream flavored buttercream frosting and strawberries in between cake layers.

Check back later for the next steps in the creation of this and the other cakes I’ll be working on in the next couple of weeks…