Mermaid, It's What's For Dinner (threadcakes 2012)

View the entry (includes lots of Work In Progress Pics) and show your support at:
[link]

I've just submitted my entry for this year's "Threadcakes" competition! Check out all the pics right here!

Wish me luck! Anyone else submitting an entry this year?


SUBMITTER'S COMMENTS:

I've always wanted to join threadcakes since I first learnt about it 2 years ago but I always ended up forgetting about it until after the deadline. This year, I made a note of it in my calendar so I wouldn't forget!

After browsing through all the different available designs, I shortlisted about 20 for consideration. I wanted my cake to have the following criteria:

1. Able to be constructed mostly out of cake and fondant with as little non edible supports as possible.

2. Be visually interesting with a lot of detail.

3. Allow me to display my sculpting skills.

4. Allow for some slight interpretation of my own.

I finally decided on "Mermaid, It's What's For Dinner" as I really liked the quirkiness of it all (my friends call it morbid but all agree that it suits me well) and I could immediately see it in my mind in cake form.

I used a rich and dense chocolate fudge cake, layered with earl grey syrup and dark chocolate ganache. I started with the fat chef, carving the main body and head portion out of two 6" round cakes, which I then padded with cake pop mix(using the cake trimmings) to get the final shape.This was coated with ganache and then wrapped in a layer of marzipan, then followed by fondant. The details of the face were then sculpted on with fondant sculpting tools. All in all, the Chef uses 4 wooden chopsticks to support the fondant arms, 1 chopstick to support the hat, and 2 floral wires to support his mustache.

Next I started work on the mermaid table. Started with a 6" square cake and reshaped it into a rectangle. Covered it with marzipan and wood marbled fondant as well. The mermaid is hand molded entirely from fondant.

I added some of my own ideas to make the cake more interesting, my favorite was the cat getting ready for a feast! I delibrately made it a skinny cat to contrast with it's owner, the fat Chef.

Overall, the cake took about 15hrs over 2 days to complete. I invited some friends over to help me cut and eat the cake on the 3rd day, the leftover cake was packed up and distributed to appreciative friends and family.