“Dino”-Mite Cake

Hello, everyone.  I’m so excited to be able to share this cake with y’all today!  Jacob H. had a birthday last week and requested a cake with a T-Rex popping out of the top layer.  Well, I was more than happy to oblige.

I was so pleased with the way this cake turned out.  Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly.  Often times, during the decorating process, you run across problems here and there, but thankfully, all went well with this cake - no decapitated dinosaurs or fallen trees.  Whew!

Don’t get me wrong, though.  Just because this cake went according to plan, doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park.  There were a lot of details to complete in this cake.  I estimate it took between six and seven hours to finish it.

What!! Seven hours??

Yes, most folks don’t realize just how long it takes to decorate a cake. You cake decorators out there can attest to this.  There’s time spent buying materials, mixing and baking, making the icing, and prepping the cakes for decorating (which includes:  leveling, filling, crumb-coating, and stacking the cakes.)  Once the icing is colored, the cakes must be iced smooth (a task in and of itself.)  Only then can the decorating begin.  On a cake like this one, with free-standing decorations and hand-painted details, work must be done days in advance to give the pieces time to dry and harden before adding them to the cake.  And don’t think that once the cake is completed that the work is done.  NOOOOO way!  Now it’s time to clean up!

I took tons of pictures of this cake, and I’m sharing many of them with you.  (I hope you don’t get bored.)  One thing about cake decorating…no matter how hard you work, and how good the cake turns out, it’s all going to be completely and utterly destroyed in a matter of minutes.  So you’ve got to take pictures if you want to remember your work.

I’m thankful that the Tool Man was around to offer his services while I was working on this cake.  Not only did he babysit, but he helped me cut out these dinosaur tracks.

I made the two dinosaurs on the face of the cake by cutting the silhouettes from rolled fondant and using icing color thinned with vanilla extract to paint the details.  I’m really beginning to love this technique.  The results are so unique.

For the T-Rex, I sculpted his body out of Rice Krispy Treats and covered it with fondant.  Then I hand-painted him with icing color.  I didn’t actually tear up the top layer of the cake here.  I took some of the crumbs that I had shaved off the cakes when leveling them and sprinkled them around the T-Rex.

Well, that one’s done, but no rest for the weary.  Remember I told you I had a really BIG project coming up this week?  It’s more cake…a lot more cake.  Thirteen to be exact!  Yep, 13 Hershey Bar cakes!  Thankfully they don’t have to be decorated, so it won’t be too difficult a task.  But still…13 cakes?

Linking to:

I’m Lovin It @ Tidy Mom

Weekend Showoff Party @ Ladybird Ln

Freestyle Friday @ Happy Hour Projects

Lindsey