iCake

Yesterday was the wedding. It was beautiful and I am very happy for the newlyweds. I didn't take any pictures of the actual wedding. I only took pictures of the cake. I guess that shows my priorities. The cake is all that matters. Right? 

Today I will post about how I made the icake :). 

On Tuesday I made the black and grey fondant as the base for the cake. On Thursday I made another batch to color for all the apps. I wanted to make it fresh that day for all the detail work so it would be easier to work with. I found out that it takes a lot of work to get it soft and pliable again after it has been refrigerated. 

I referenced a photo of another iphone cake someone made online, and made a list of what colors I needed for each app. This is my interpretation of the solar system :).

I like to use the gel colorings. It doesn't change the consistency too much like liquid coloring and gives a truer and richer color to your finished product. Use it sparingly, because a little goes a long way.

I found a square cookie cutter at Michael's that was a life saver. I placed all the squares on a piece of wax paper that I rubbed with shortening. It worked very well and nothing stuck.

Make sure everything is well coated in powdered sugar when rolling it out. Especially when rolling with a wooden rolling pin. Fondant likes to stick. 

I had a little cutting board and a super sharp knife to do all my detail work. I am working on the calculator app at this point. 

Once everything was cut and put in place, I went through and stuck all the pieces together with water. 

I also baked the cakes on Thursday. The recipe I used was the Strawberry Dream Cake recipe from allrecipes. I used a different icing, I didn't use any oil, I didn't add the extra egg, I used strawberry cream cheese, and I added red food coloring. It turned out perfectly. I had a half-sheet pan and used two cake recipes for each layer. After they cooled I wrapped them in plastic wrap and let them refrigerate overnight. On Friday for the assembly I laid out everything I needed. 

I unwrapped the first cake and placed it on the board. One corner was high, so I cut it off and placed it on the low corner on the other side. It evened out nicely and kept me from wasting cake. When putting filling in a cake you want to pipe icing around the edges to make a dam so the filling won't fun out when the second cake is placed on top. 

I used a strawberry jelly filling. 

Take your second cake, make sure it is evened out and CAREFULLY place it on top. 

It is always helpful to start off with a crumb coat on your cake. Take a few big spoonfuls of icing and place it in a separate bowl so the rest of the batch doesn't get contaminated. Spread a thin layer on the cake. This is to catch any crumbs so your final frosting will be smooth and free of stray cake.

After the cake was iced, I got the fondant ready. It had been siting out all morning, but was still pretty hard so I zapped it in the microwave for 60 seconds on power level 4. I kneaded it out for a while until it was pliable. It was a little dry so I added a touch of water and covered my hands in shortening to make it more smooth. Measure your cake and make sure you give yourself plenty of extra just in case. My cake was 3"x 12"x 20" if I remember right. So, when rolling it out my goal was 20"x 30". This part takes some time and lots of elbow grease so be ready.

Once you have reached your desired width and length, take your rolling pin and carefully roll it around the pin. Pick it up, position it over your cake and let it unroll. Work quickly to smooth it over the cake, then take a sharp knife to cut off the excess. 

I used a little bit of water on my fingers to smooth out cracks and pockets of powdered sugar. I used the gray as a border around the side and bottom and a panel on top.

Then I placed on the apps that I had made the day before and stuck them onto the cake with water. 

I used a little bit more white fondant to finish up the final touches. 

Voila! Here is the finished cake. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I had a great time working on this project and everyone thought it is was as delicious as it was cool :). This is what I call a sweet success.