Just last week Rachel was kind enough to share her Porche 911 cake with us and I'm happy PCD was able to help.  This week she has shared a few more cakes with us and I think she did a wonderful job.


Rachel was very creative in how she made the Yo Gabba Gabba characters.  This is a great idea for anyone unable to make gumpaste figures.












Great job on the Wonder Pets and their Fly Boat.  You've got me singing their theme song :)











Last but not least, we have The Wiggles.  I really like how Rachel decided to stack the tiers.










Thank you again Rachel for sharing your cakes with us!

If you have cakes to share with the PCD readers or have used a guide that you found helpful, we'd love to see your work.  Send your pictures to photos@pieceofcakedecorating.com.

My passion for cake decorating started with a simple Halloween Jack-o-Lantern cake for a friends costume party so I always get excited when this time of year rolls around.  This mummy cake was made for last year's party and it was a huge hit.

In this guide you will learn how to carve a cake to look like a mummy as well as how to wrap your mummy cake with fondant strips.

To make this cake you will need...

Foam-Core board
Wilton Fanci-Foil or black wrapping paper and clear cellophane
1 oval cake
1 13x9 cake
1-2 mini wonder mold cakes
2 batches of buttercream icing
3 batches of fondant
Wilton's Fondant Ribbon Cutter (optional)
black buttercream icing
any round tip
















Directions:

Step 1

Cut a piece of Foam-Core in the shape of a coffin to create your cake board.  Then, either cover it with Wilton Fanci Foil or black wrapping paper.   If you use black wrapping paper you will then need to cover the board again with clear cellophane.

Step 2

There is no need to level, tort, and fill any of these cakes.  In fact, you will make your job easier if you don't.  So, your next step is to cut the 13x9 cake into the shape of the body.

***Decorator's Tip*** A paper template will help make sure your body is symmetrical and make carving so much easier.

As you can see from this picture, I rounded the edges a bit, cut a slit for the legs and used the extra pieces to shape the arms and shoulders. (Don't worry about the hands just yet.)

***Decorator's Tip*** Cut your cake frozen to reduce the amount of crumbs and get more control over the amount of cake you are carving off. 

Next, round off the edges of the oval cake to create the head and trim some cake off one end to make a neck. (Don't worry about the nose and chin just yet.)  Then, using a small spoon, scoop out indents for the eye sockets.  Depending how your cake baked, you may need to carve off a little cake to create cheek bones.  I did not have to here.

Finally, depending on the size of your legs, cut a mini wonder mold cake in half and trim a bit off the edges to create the feet.  If your legs come out larger than mine, you may need to use 2 mini cakes (1 per foot) to keep things proportional.


Step 3

Using the picture above as a guide and your carved cakes for proportions, make a nose, chin, and hand out of fondant or gumpaste and attach it to the face with a small amount of buttercream.


Step 4



Cover your entire cake and fondant features with buttercream icing.  Then, fill in the eyes with black icing and a round tip.









Step 5

Roll out your fondant between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thickness and cut into long strips.  Wilton's Fondant Ribbon Cutter will make this job very easy.


Step 6

Wrap the mummy with your strips of fondant making sure not to leave any cake showing.  Tuck the edges of your fondant strips under the cake with a gumpaste tool, decorator's brush, or fork.

***Decorator's Tip*** To help accent the slit cut for the legs, wrap each leg individually with shorter strips.


Reader photos using this guide...

Recently Rachel used my 3D Car Carving Guide to make this amazing Porche 911.  As you can see, it is covered in fondant and I'm pretty sure she used gelatin sheets for the windshield.  However, she was looking into using sugar.  Nice work Rachel and thank you for sharing.  Rachel has sent in a few more cakes to share and they will be posted very soon!




Want to share your cakes with PCD?  Send your pictures to photos@pieceofcakedecorating.com!

What better way to celebrate opening day of football than with an NFL helmet cake?  In this guide you will learn how to carve and decorate a cake to look like a helmet.

This was my first attempt at making a helmet cake so you will find sections written in red.  These sections will note changes I plan to make the next time around.  Sometimes showing you my mistakes can be more helpful than just giving you a "perfect" cake so I wanted to make sure to include them.

To make this cake you will need...

1/2 Ball cake (6-8 inches in diameter depending on the size of your cake)
6 or 8 inch round cake, 2 layers (size should be equal to the diameter of your 1/2 ball cake)
10 inch round cake board
buttercream icing
fondant tinted the colors of your football team (you can also airbrush or hand paint the cake if needed)
black tinted fondant or black edible paint
decorator's brushes
white gumpaste
tube of black icing (optional)
tips #2 (optional) and #3 (optional)




Directions:


Step 1




A few days in advance, make your gumpaste mask.  To do this, I rolled out long pieces of gumpaste and dried them on a large pitcher built up with napkins.  I used wax paper for easy removal and a template to help make the shape.   











Step 2

Level, tort and fill the round cakes.  You should also level off the 1/2 ball cake and  then stack all three with the round cakes on the bottom and the 1/2 ball cake on top.

Step 3

Using the pictures below as a guide, carve out the section of the mask for the face and round off the back. 


Next time I carve this cake I will round off the bottom front edge a little more.  If you look at the completed cake, it looks a little too flat.

***Decorator's Tip*** Remember that when carving, it is always best to work with a frozen cake and take a little off at a time.  You can always take more off but can't put any back on!

Step 4

Ice the entire cake with buttercream icing.


Step 5





Using fondant, any color, make the front pieces of the mask and build out the top a bit more to make the final helmet feel empty.
 
Just like the carving, the side pieces of fondant should be curved up a bit more than I have here.










Then, add a little more buttercream icing to the seams so your helmet is smooth when covered in fondant. 










Step 6

Cover your cake in fondant and add a stripe down the back if necessary.  To make the stripe stick, use a decorator's brush and apply a small amount of water down the center of the helmet.


Step 7




Either pipe on your team's logo with tip #3 or cut it out of fondant and place it on the cake.  I have piped the NY Giants logo on the helmet using a template.  Click here for more information on piping with a template.










Step 8



Paint the fondant "inside" the helmet black.  You could also use black tinted fondant.  Place your gumpaste face mask on the front of the cake and pipe on the details using tip #3.

***Decorator's Tip*** Personalize the cake by adding a name to the front mask plate.  Here I have used a tube of black icing and tip #2 





Happy Decorating!

If you found this guide helpful, I would love to see your finished product.  You can e-mail your pictures to photos@pieceofcakedecorating.com and I will share them with my readers!

Today I received photos from Camila of Dream Cakes.  A custom cake shop in Brazil!  I am honored to have a reader from so far away and excited to share her amazing cakes with you.  She is very talented and I encourage you to see more of her work at the Dream Cakes website.



The idea behind this cake is adorable!















Great work on the car!

















Very cute cake.















Out of all the cake photos Camila sent me, this is my favorite.




















I really like the idea of the clothesline.  I'm going to have to remember that one.












The color combinations on this cake are great!













Thank you again Camila for sending your pictures to photos@pieceofcakedecorating.com.

All photos are welcome!  Cake decorators will be featured in my Feature Friday segment while readers will appear as Reader Photos.

 New Halloween cake ideas are coming soon to PCD.  In the mean time, enjoy this guest post.

Guest post written by Miriam Davidson

It's barely September, but I'm already looking at patterns for Halloween costumes. But they're not for me. My grandson has insisted that I make a costume for him and luckily he made this request pretty early so I'm actually able to do it.

I always made my kids' Halloween and school play costumes when they were growing up but it has been so long since I've made one because they outgrew the age where they needed costumes like that a long, long time ago.

What he wants to be is also something that I think it might be hard to find in stores anyway. He watched the movie "Where the Wild Things Are" and loved it. He wants to be one of the wild things on there so the costume will be a little more complicated than if he was the main character that just wears a little furry wolf costume. But I almost started making him a costume for the wrong wild thing, which would have been a disaster if his mom hadn't caught it. I misheard him and after that I looked up miracle ear locations and made an appointment to get hearing aids.

I got some and rewatched the movie with my grandson. It was really interesting to see how they developed the characters when they didn't have a whole lot to go from from the book, which barely has many words in it.