Candylands Creative Corner (14)

Candylands' Creative Corner (pg. 14)

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The "Real Sponge Bob"

Contributed by: Jane Walsh, North Charleston, NC)

My 5 year old son and I are big SpongeBob fans and decided to make a "Real Spongebob" cake for his 5th birthday. The image used to create the cake is the classic open mouth smiling image of SpongeBob. I used a 15"x11" pan to bake a single layer cake. It took 2 boxes of cake mix; baked at 350' for about 40 min. Bake and ice the cake a day in advance since it takes time to make. Let the cake cool then flip onto a large cookie sheet covered in tin foil. It took a total 3 cans of icing [1 chocolate for the brown pants; 2 white icing cans, (1/2 can for shirt, socks, teeth and eyes, and 1 1/2 mixed with yellow food coloring for arms,legs and head)]. The details used a total of 3 tubes of icing with a narrow tip. 1 black icing for outlines, eyelashes, shoes, belt, and mouth. 1 red tube for tie, tongue and cheeks w/ freckles.

Start by covering the top section of the cake with tin foil to keep the cake clean while icing Spongebob's brown pants. The edge of the tin foil gave a nice clean line to the top of the pants when removed. You will have to create a tin foil tie to lay on the cake to protect the tie section from the brown icing in the pants and the white icing in the shirt area. Next, carefully ice the shirt section w/ white icing using tin foil to protect face section of the cake. Lift off the tin foil tie with a toothpick. The face was the trickiest part. You will need to cut out circles for the eyes and a mouth shape to protect these areas while icing w/ yellow. Cut the plastic lids of the icing to size for the eyes. Make sure you cut out curves for the cheeks and nose that over lap the eyes. To make the mouth, shape a flat layer of tin foil into a mouth. Place the eyes and mouth patterns onto the cake while you lay on the yellow icing. Once the yellow icing is smooth and neat, lift the mouth and eyes with a tooth pick. Next, ice the eyes in but now use smaller tin foil circles to protect the iris and pupil area from the white icing. Lift with toothpick when done. Pipe the iris with the blue tube of icing w/ narrow tip. Use the black tube of icing to pipe in the center pupils and outline each blue iris in black. "TIP" -- use a clean damp finger tip to gently and carefully smooth down the piped icing.

To finish the mouth, place tin foil shaped into a tongue and two rectangular teeth onto cake then pipe black icing in open mouth. Remove tin foil w/ toothpicks. Fill teeth with white icing and tongue with red. Outline the mouth with smile creases, tongue and teeth with black icing. Pipe red icing into the tie section then outline with black icing. Pipe rosey cheeks and freckles with red icing and also a red wiggly line for a chin under the mouth. In black, pipe V-shaped collar tips onto the shirt. Remember to smooth down the piped details with a damp finger tip. The arms and legs are made from stiff cardboard. Cut out and cover in tinfoil then ice like the cake. White for the socks, yellow for the legs and black for the shoes. The black, blue and red stripes on the socks are made by dipping a toothpick into the colored tubes of icing and gently pressing colors onto the socks. Set aside in a cool oven to dry. After the hands dry, press the edge of knife into yellow icing to make fingers. Make sure you make the points where the body parts attach to the cake at least 2 1/2 inches longer to press into the cake.

Store cake in cooled oven overnight. To make sponge holes, wait until the following morning and with a clean thumb, lightly stained with black icing, press thumb into the yellow icing. Since the icing has dried over night, it won't stick to your finger and makes a nice indention for the sponge effect.

"There's Nothing Like a Good Book"

Contributed by: Suzy Hime (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK)

I made these 2 cakes on a similar theme. The first was for my husband's mother's 90th Birthday. I made it like a diary to represent her activities in the week of her birthday. The effect of pages was made by laying a separate rolled out piece of sugar paste on top of the already covered cake, having used a ruler pressed into the icing round the edges to make page edges. I then used edible gold powder (mixed to a "paint" with gin!--it’s clear!) to brush on to the edge of the "pages". The pen is made from 2 colours of sugar paste icing partially molded together to give a marbled effect. I painted the pen clip with the same gold "paint". The cover of the diary is a piece of rolled sugar paste. The other book cake was for our school 40th re-union, made in similar fashion, and intended to mimic the hand-written song books we had to make. The writing was done with a writing icing pen. Regards Suzy Hime

First Birthday (& more)

Contributed by: Kim Weir "With Sugar On Top" (Hurlock, MD)

I am a mother of three and a home baker trying to start a small cake & pastry business. This (bottom, lower left) is a cake I made for my daughters first birthday. She loves Elmo and we just had a pool installed so we made the theme of Elmo goes to the beach

"Lititz Chocolate Walk"

Contributed by: Kathy Blankenbiller, (Lititz, PA)

The items you see were made for our annual "Lititz Chocolate Walk," which is held each October. During this event, chocolatier (professional and amateur--that's me) put up displays to show the public what we can do with chocolate! It's a wonderful, yummy event that brings a couple of thousand people to this tiny, historical town just minutes from Lancaster, Pa. Anyway, it is not a competition, just a day to brag, I suppose. So, I decided to show you just a few of the items I displayed. Candy making is a hobby, not a profession for me.

Here are some details on the photos: In the "Chocolate-Candy Angel" photo (lower right), you'll see a happy little angel made of chocolate candy clay. Her wings are made of gel paper dusted with luster dust. She is holding a bunch of Wilbur Buds as Lititz is home to the Wilbur Chocolate Company. In the "Chocolate tiles" photo (lower left), you'll see a huge "quilt" I made out of individual chocolate tiles. All the artwork on it is freehand and done in chocolate. Note that in the middle is the Lititz Chocolate Walk symbol. In the "Fairytale segment of Chocolate Walk 05" photo (upper left), you'll see a white chocolate-tinted-pink "Cinderella" shoe bedazzled by sugar pearls, on a chocolate cake-covered-with-candy clay "pillow." Below that you'll see the storybook chocolate cake, completely edible, and then finally, as we all know, you have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince, but this frog, made freehand by using chocolate candy clay, gives a general hint by wearing his golden crown (white chocolate tinted yellow and dusted with gold luster dust). In the "Chocolate Christmas Trees and Sleigh" photo (upper right), all the trees are solid chocolate, with a sleigh created from dark chocolate, filled with homemade candies. The gifts nestled in the royal icing snow are also all filled chocolate candies.

Hope you like these shots; I received a lot of "oohs" and "ahhs!" Sincerely, Kathy Blankenbiller

"S. S. Just Married"

Contributed by: Holly Bass, (Leesburg, FL)

Hi! It's Holly Bass from Leesburg, Florida again. I would like to submit the "S.S. Just Married" cruise ship cake for your creativecontributor corner. This was a very fun wedding shower cake that I did. The bride and groom were heading out on a cruise for their honeymoon. The "portholes" are M&M's, the "life preservers" are Life Savers with a little red food coloring for the stripes, and the ship is docked with some tan colored yarn tied to some wooden spools. I hope you enjoy my latest contribution. I had a great time making it, and it made for a great centerpiece at the cruise themed shower. Thanks!

Editor's note: You can see Holly's previous contribution <here>