As I’m just getting started on a new cake, I thought I’d post some of my previous ones…
When I was young I always made cakes for my family, especially my little sister as she grew up. After not making any for a few years I was excited to make birthday cakes for my own kids. This is Anastasia’s 2nd birthday cake from December last year.
Even a few months ago though, I had little idea about 3d sculpted cakes, I barely knew they existed let alone had any thoughts of making them. Just before my youngest’s 1st birthday a friend showed me some 3d cakes she’d made using fondant. I was amazed at what she’d done and what was possible. I made, what I sure was, the most elaborate Dorothy the Dinosaur cake ever made (little did I know).
Proud of what I’d done, but having learned a great deal from the mistakes I’d made, I started to investigate further, scouring the net for more examples and information. I couldn’t believe my eyes. What I’d made was quite basic compared to many of the creations I’d found, and I’d found a new passion. I had to learn more. I spent a few weeks absorbing as much as I could, seeing what was possible, trying to find out how it had been done, and planning how I could use all this new information to make bigger and better cakes. A friends birthday was coming up, a great opportunity to get some more practice in. I was a bit bolder with this one, which unfortunately came back to haunt me…
Everything was working out pretty well until I was pulling the plastic wrap off the base when the elephants body fell off it’s foot. I hadn’t made the support strong enough and the glue had given way (although if I’d made it the way I originally planned it would have been fine. Lesson: Don’t get flustered at the hardware store when your kid is screaming in your ear, or even better leave the kids at home). But the birthday girl still loved it, and I learned even more than the last one.
Around this time my sister was starting to organise my nephews Christening. Having seen my previous cakes, she asked me to make a cake for the occasion with a Lion King theme (her married name is Aslanidis which means Lion). Being a christening the only thing we could imagine was the pride rock scene. I knew it was a huge endeavor, one way beyond my experience level, but I’ve always been one to dive in the deep end. I spent a few weeks of spare time planning it, measuring, figuring out how much cake was needed (70+ serves) so I could work out what size it would need to be.
With just under 2 weeks to go I made a practice lion with the theory that I could make all my mistakes on that one and be ready to make the final ones. I hadn’t made my own rice crispies before, so I wanted to test that. I also wanted to test the armature as it would have to withstand a 2 hour car trip to get to its destination. Over 4 days I made the practice lion which went really well, and I learned a lot from making it. Under a week to go and I felt confident. I had made a checklist for each day, for what needed to be done. It was going to be a busy week, even with all my planning I ended up making up a lot as I went…
Monday I shopped for all the ingredients, made the board and attached the armature. I had planned just to make Rafiki and the cub in place on the final board, but realized that I needed to make, place and ice the “rock” under him, as well as needing to put the final cake in and out of the freezer, which I didn’t know how would affect the modeling chocolate. So I made a duplicate stand for Rafiki so he could be made separately and placed on the final board at the end. I also made the rice crispies for Rafiki and put them on his armature.
Tuesday I made the slab cake and all the fondant I’d need.
Wednesday I made the cakes for the lions and iced and covered the rock (3/4 polystyrene 1/4 cake) with fondant.
I realised at this time that once the cakes for the lions were carved in place I wouldn’t be able to freeze the cake because of the rock already being covered in fondant (I’d read that you can’t freeze fondant or it comes out patchy). I’d kept the practice lion in the freezer right up to putting fondant on, so already things weren’t going to plan. But since the cakes would be coming out of the freezer, maybe they’d stay cold enough without going back in the freezer.
Thursday I carved the cakes and put on the rice crispies. The carving went well, although by the end of the 2nd crumb coat the cakes were pretty much defrosted.
The rice crispies for the first lion went ok, I’d done the female first as I’d done that one before for the test. There was a little movement in the cake on her chest from the rice crispies pushing down on it, but it was manageable. Since the cake had been frozen when I’d done it for the test I hadn’t had that problem before.
Then I put the rice crispies on the male lion. Well not only had the cake well and truly thawed by now, I hadn’t accounted for the extra weight of the mane. The amount of rice crispies needed for the underside of the mane weren’t strong enough to withstand gravity by themselves, and the unfrozen cake was just buckling under the pressure (If it had been still frozen it would have been fine as the cake would have held up the rice crispies). The whole thing started to fall apart. The mane was falling forward, the cake was almost at breaking point. The shoulders were falling off without the mane to hold on to. Aaaahhhhh!! what to do???
The only thing I could think of was to throw the whole thing in the freezer and hope that it froze quickly enough to a: hold the cake together, and b: set the rice crispies before too much damage was done. By massaging the cake/RKT’s a few times as they froze it managed to hold together. It was very late so I left it overnight and hoped that it would still be ok in the morning.
I happened to have had Dorothy’s head still in the freezer as it hadn’t been eaten. I’d taken it out Thursday morning just to see how the fondant reacted to being thawed as I’d been wary of allowing the cakes to defrost. The fondant seemed to be ok that evening once it had thawed, without any shiny patches, so I thought that being in the freezer would hopefully not ruin the already iced rock too much.
Friday I took out the cake and thankfully it hadn’t completely fallen apart. The mane and shoulder had fallen, leaving gaps, but the rice crispies had set so I could just fill those gaps with more rice crispies and add the head which I hadn’t got to the previous night.
I learned a great deal more about working with rice crispies which was great. The most important lesson I learned was that if you create a core of rice crispies around the armature and allow that to set (preferably freeze), additional rice crispies will adhere, defy gravity, and set much better.
Already running late, I quickly coated the rice crispies in royal icing, and gave the cakes another layer of butter cream icing, and it was onto the fondant.
I hadn’t really accounted for the lions being so close together (their shoulders were actually touching), but the way I had made the armature there was no way to make them separate and put them together at the end. So there were a few more fondant patches than I would have liked, but overall the fondant wasn’t too bad an experience. My biggest fondant lesson is never to work with chocolate fondant again. The mane is covered in chocolate fondant and it was so difficult, and took so long to knead that I had bruised knuckles from it for days after.
So although I’d hoped to have the fondant finished by 8.30pm I didn’t get done till 11pm. Finally with that done I could rest… for 1/2 an hour, because with the full and busy days before I hadn’t even started the chocolate for Rafiki and the cub. Perhaps an all nighter ahead I grabbed something to eat, had a quick rest, and kissed my wife goodnight before getting started again.
I quickly learned a few lessons working with the modeling chocolate (especially since I hadn’t worked with it before). One was that I loved working with it much more than fondant, and saw huge potential in it. Another was to leave plenty of time to knead, for this job actual modeling only took 2-3 hours, kneading took 3-4 hours. And another is that it’s really quite heavy so allow for that when making the armature. As you can see from the photos I ended up having to prop Rafiki up with a skewer because of the weight. In hindsight a tripod armature (including the tail and the 2 legs) would have been better.
7 hours later I’d finished Rafiki and the cub and all that was left was to color the eyes and features of the lions. I finally climbed into bed 4 hours before we had to leave, but happy that I’d managed to finish the cake.
The Christening reception went very well. The cake held up until it was cut, and was generally very successful. But I don’t think I’ll make anything this ambitious for a while…
Here is the finished cake:
My nephews birthday cake is currently in production, and I’m just starting to plan Anastasia’s 3rd birthday cake, so I’ll post some more cake pics soon…
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The Lion King cake is amazing. I would like to ask a few questions. This is truly amazing!!! Well done.
Thanks very much. Feel free to ask here in the comments, or you can email me.
te felicito!! es hermoso ese pastel!!!
me hubira encantada que me prepararan uno asi de chica!!
amo al rey leon!
Muchas gracias
This is absolutely amazing!!! You are an incredibly gifted artist!!!
Your cakes are fantastic!
I am going to try and make a dorothy cake for my daughter’s birthday and would appreciate any tips you would be willing to pass on.
Is she made entirely of cake or have you used rice crispies as well? And how did you make her hat?
Thanks very much.
Thanks Erin,
Dorothy is made entirely out of cake. The body used a big pyrex bowl and the head used a little pyrex bowl and a pudding tin. I also made two 20cm round cakes to make up the arms, legs and tail.
The hat is fondant that I draped over a small bowl and then stuck thick texters under to support the ripple until it dried. It didn’t need to be as thick as I made it though. The pattern on it is just piped dark chocolate.
The teeth, eyes and spikes down her back and tail are made from chocolate.
The biggest problem I had was the head was quite unsteady as it was heavier than I realized. Doing it again I’d have a much stronger support down through the head and body. As the body is quite wide, the support doesn’t need to be attached to the board though. A 1cm dowel should be plenty…
If you have any other questions, please ask
Hi there,
Apologies in advance for the length of this post! I really admire your designs and talents, everything looks so wonderful. I’m wondering if you can offer me some advice on the proper use of rice crispy treats? I attempted my first rice crispy creation last night but had limited success. I attempted a half of a dolphin (so it would look like it was jumping out of the cake). I found an example online and the woman stated she made the dolphin from rice crispy treats. My fiance and I made the treats per the recipe on the side of the cereal box and then it was all down hill from there.
Our main problem was that the treats wouln’t support a shape. Every time we got the dolphin as we wanted it, it would begin to shrink down and slump over and the bottle nose and dorsal fin would fall off in clumps. We put supports in several areas but the treats just oozed around them so they didn’t help at all. We thought maybe the treats needed to be stone cold so we froze them. That worked very well, until they came to room temp and slumped back over. We quickly formed and froze the shape we wanted and after 20 minutes in the freezer covered it in fondant and froze it again. Even with the hard fondant on it, once it came to room temp it slumped again.
What have I done wrong? How on earth do you get the treats to be stiff enough to where you can sculpt things with them? I love the idea of using treats and would love to try it again if I can figure it out. Thanks so much for any help you can offer.
Thanks Jennifer,
I’m not sure what recipe you used, but usually the recipes say to use too much butter. Butter makes them taste better, but can stop them from sticking to each other as well. The recipe I use is here:
How I Made an Elmo Cake… Part 3
I’m told the hotter you get the marshmallows the harder the rice crispies will be when they’ve set. I tend to give them an extra 10-15 secs after they’ve melted just to heat them up a bit more.
Some other tips for rice crispies:
1. Let them cool a bit before working with them, 5-10 minutes lets them cool enough to handle, and lets the marshmallow cool enough to stick better.
2. Make sure you press them together really firmly, with all your strength. The harder you push them together the better they’ll keep their shape and stick together.
3. When putting rice crispies on a support or armature it’s often a good idea to put a core of rice crispies around the support, pressed together really firmly, then freeze or allow to set. Then mold your final shape over the top. That way when you mold your final shape the rice crispies have something more substantial to hold onto. They can defy gravity a bit better then, speaking of which…
4. Rice crispies are deceptively heavy, although still a lot lighter than the same amount of cake. You need to be really wary of gravity which is a mortal enemy of rice crispies. If your shape can’t be fully supported from underneath you’ll need to make sure that the the weight of the rice crispies isn’t too much for their holding power. Sometimes all you need is to support the weight with your hand, or wrap it in plastic wrap, until it’s cooled or set enough to hold. As you’re working other parts, keep checking all over for bits falling off and push them back into place.
5. Once they’ve been frozen, rice crispies can fall apart when they thaw. I think the moisture from the condensation gets in and weakens the bonds. So if you freeze them it’s good to get them covered while they’re still cold and not let them warm up too much. The fondant should be enough to hold them in place (I’m not sure what went wrong with yours unless gravity was just too much for it). Otherwise you can leave them to set overnight at room temperature which usually results in a very firm, solid shape.
For a dolphin like yours I’d make the body, head and nose out of rice crispies, molded around a dowel to help hold it up and keep it in place on the cake. I’d make the fins just out of fondant, as they’d be too thin for rice crispies to be much use.
Hope this helps, and best of luck.
Hello! Your cakes are awesome! I’m into creating cakes as well and the way you make your supports/ armature is very interesting. Could you explain how you made the armature for your lion king cake (materials used, etc)? Also, once you’ve made the armature for this particular cake, how do you place the cakes on it? Is the armature detachable so that you can just poke it into the cake structure and then proceed to carve, or do you cut into the cake to fit it to the armature? Sorry for all the questions but that’s what puzzles me the most. Thanks again
Love your cakes! I am going to make Monsters Inc. for my 6 year old daughter’s b-day. I am going to make Mike, Sully and Boo out of rice krispy treats and cover with fondant. Could you please tell me how long they will stay good? I am going to have to make them early to get the cake its self done! Would a week be too early? ( they are going to just be used for decorations, not to eat) I don’t want the fondant to crack or look bad. Thanks for your time!
Thanks Allie,
It took me a while to figure out armatures, and I still feel like I have a fair way to go, as each cake has unique challenges. It doesn’t help that I live in the country, and the local hardware store doesn’t have a huge range of parts, so I’ve kinda made do with what I was able to get. However I have developed some standard materials and methods.
There’s instructions for how I made the stand for Elmo in the first installment which is a fairly standard setup for many cakes.
The lion king armatures are more complex. There’s a pic of the naked armature above, where you can see the central supports are made from PVC pipe connected with elbow joints. The arm supports are dowel connected with brass elbow joints. The great thing about this setup is that it comes apart easily section by section, but when it’s together it’s quite strong and sturdy.
I started by drilling holes in the board, just large enough for the vertical pipe to be hammered into, a very tight fit. I put in some glue as well just to be sure, then hammered the pipe in. This is the most important element, as it secures most of the cake and the rest of the armature.
The rest of the armature can easily lift off the vertical pipe, allowing the cakes to be layered on the vertical pipe without the armature getting in the way as you can see here in the next pic. Then I carved the cakes. You can see where I’ve cut notches in the cake to allow for the arm support dowels. The top part of the armature just fits on over the top then, ready to support the rice crispies (remembering to push it down really well so it’s tight and secure before adding rice crispies).
The needs of the cake also determine the armature. If it needs to travel a long distance by car then the armature needs to be much more sturdy than if the cake is being used at home. Many cakes don’t need the central support to be secured to the base. Overall I prefer to err on the side of caution though.
Thanks Robin,
Great idea, please send me a photo when you’ve made it. I hope to have a chance to make a Monsters Inc cake myself one day.
Rice crispies covered in fondant will last for ages. I kept the head of Anastasia’s Rani cake for about 3 months, and even after all that time the only thing wrong was the food coloring makeup had bled a little from humidity. I recon it lasted a good 2 months before the makeup even started to run though.
So yeah, in a cool dry place it should last for many months. I often mean to make the fondant decorations weeks in advance to lessen the stress of the week leading up to the party, but never seem to be able to…
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond! I will be starting on that next week! I def. will send you a pic! I just hope I haven’t bit off more then I can chew! lol I’m up for a challange! Again, thanks so much! ( the party isn’t untill Aug.15 )
Hi, love your work,
i am thinking of undertaking a model cake soon ,
this will be a 2 footed 3d creature with one arm holding something.
Looking at your rafiki picture im wondering what the support structure looks like under neath?
i was going to build a simple Y shape but am wondering if the arms will need supports too as one of them will be outstretched.
any advice much appreciated
thanks
Brian
Hi!! Awsome lion king cake! I have a quick question though: I want to try to make a Gir cake (Gir is from the cartoon Invader Zim in case you don’t know). However, his head is like, twice the size of his body. Do have any suggestions on how to make his head without it falling off? Thanks! (You can either reply here, or send me an e-mail).
Hi Brian,
Here is a pic of the support, made out of a coat hanger.
I would definitely include the outstretched arm in the support. Better to be safe…
If you’re making the character as an addition to the cake, this would work well. If you’re making the character as the cake, then you’ll need a much more solid support structure, more like what I made for the lions, or Elmo.
Hi Melissa,
Check out the support for Elmo in How I made an Elmo cake Part 1. He’s got an over sized head too, and the support structure would work for any character with a big head. In fact I have a few super-deformed character cakes planned using the same support.
Just wondering whether you could decorate dorothy in butter icing, my daughter doesn’t eat the fondant icing.
Hello! I just found your blog too and I am sooo impressed! After reading about your cakes I took on my first 3-D fondant cake, a cinderella princess castle and it turned out great! I have a couple of questions, maybe you can help me with?
1. I froze the rice crispies overnight to help solidify them but after I covered them with fondant for the pillars over time they got soft underneath and started to shape shift. Is there a way to avoid that?
2. How do you paint on color? Is it just the gel food coloring you use and paint it on?
3. Do you use marmallow fondant? I have read there are three different types of fondant and marshmallow fondant is supposed to be the hardest to use, though I didn’t have too much issue with it. I’m just wondering if there is easier fondant to work with. I did actually like the taste of the marshamllow fondant!
Thanks for your help, and for posting all your amazing cakes! I love looking at the final products! It’s very inspiring!!
Thanks Nicole,
I’m so glad it’s been helpful, and that your castle turned out well.
I have found that happens too with rice crispies. I’m thinking that perhaps overnight isn’t the best, that an hour or so in the freezer and then overnight in the air. I’ve found after a few days left out that the rice crispies get very hard and strong. I’ve overcome it by covering them with fondant which holds them together while they set hard. It’s more evident in smaller pieces.
For pillars I think it’d be best to leave them in a cool dry spot for a couple of days to really set hard.
Yep, any food coloring will do the job, but I’ve used a bit of gel coloring in a shot glass with a tiny drop or two of vodka works best. The vodka waters it down to the right color, and helps it dry quickly.
I only know of two types of fondant. I’ve made MM fondant and bought the other kind, although there are recipes for it around the place. I actually find MMF easier to use, and it’s handy being able to make it quickly. The taste isn’t too different between them either.
wow…i love the lion king!….my son is turning 1 on april and i am looking for someone to do a lion king theme cake, the problem is that i live in hawaii and i dont know if they would ship it here. so i was just wondering if they can ship cakes.
Fantastic. Your work is wonderful. You have inspired me. Well done.
I’ve just been admiring your work, wow!! My son recently had his 1st bday, sick of the boring cakes in those kiddies cake books (mum of 3, lots of bdays) I searched book shops high and low for something inspiring and new and do-able, found nothing. I knew there were cakes out there (really expensive) to buy that are like what you do, had absolutely no idea on how to do them. After reading how you do your cakes I believe using your basic principals, the only thing stopping me is time to create it and choosing something, I could make anything now, the only thing limiting is my imagination. Thank you again!!
Thanks so much Kate. That’s exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Best of luck with your cakes.
After just making my first ever cake (apart from the usual plain boring round cakes!!) for my daughters 2nd birthday and feeling quite proud of myself, I stumbled on your website. Even though I am still relatively happy with my first attempt (Dolly Vardon – very pedestrian for someone with your talent!) I am feeling quite humbled just now! This is not cake decorating – this is art pure and simple. You are truly truly talented and I hope you continue to produce such amazing creations for the sheer joy it brings – to others and obviously to yourself!!
Well done. You are very talented. I have created my first racing car cake and am looking at making one for my son who is turning 1…you have inspired me.
Thanks very much Sarah and Simone
your dorothy the dinosaur cake is amazing! i wod love to attempt to make it for my little sisters birthday… if u dont mind could i ask u a few questions?
how did u make the arms and legs for her especially the gloves? and could u use butter icing instead of fondant?
your dorothy the dinosaur cake is amazing!
i would love to attempt to make it for my little sister…
her body and head are they made in the same size cake tin?
can you use buttercream icing instead of fondant?
and how did u shape her arms and legs?
sorry for all the questions!