I made the bottom cake chocolate. The upper, carved piece is a white cake. I find it is a more stable cake if using white cake for the carved piece - less top heavy. I layered the bottom cake and iced it with buttercream icing. I then took the second cake,which is a size smaller than the bottom cake, carved a half moon shape and placed it on the iced bottom cake approximately 1/4 inch from the bottom cake's outer edge. This, after being iced, will give the slightly tapered look. To create the center of the crescent moon piece, carve another slice of cake for the center rock ramp. Cut the left edge of the crescent in a ski slope manner. Pipe in icing generously in any seams or empty spaces. The bottom was airbrushed green in up and down motions as to blend in with the upper half of cake. Upper half of cake was airbrushed brown. Everything on the cake - rocks, bushes, trees, dog and small flowers - were made out of fondant, then airbrushed. The river was made with piping gel and color of your choice. Make the cakes the day before decorating. The decorating of the cake took about four hours. The trees, bushes, dogs, rocks,and rock ramp were made a couple of days in advance to assure that they had hardened sufficiently. My grandson turned 5 and had a party at Pizza Hut, Saturday. The cake was a huge surprise for my Grandson. His eyes were reward enough for me. |