Our contribution to the 2010 Humane Society Gala - Dessert Dash! At 19 inches tall our 'dog' was made of crispy treats, vanilla cake and butter cream, covered in modelling chocolate and fondant! Oh and underneath all that, safely wrapped in plastic of course, PVC pipe, plumbing attachments, screws, custom cut press board and a base that weighed almost as much as the cake!!
It seems that almost every new request brings new learning experiences. After you've made a few, or more than a few, round wedding cakes with ribbon around the base and few flowers on top can it can really make you feel like you've got your act together. Like you're pretty good at this cake stuff. Then someone asks for something new. In our case, a 3D dog cake to help support the 2010 Humane Society's 2010 Gala fundraiser. Sure, we said, we can do that! Why not! And thus the learning experience began!
It seems that almost every new request brings new learning experiences. After you've made a few, or more than a few, round wedding cakes with ribbon around the base and few flowers on top can it can really make you feel like you've got your act together. Like you're pretty good at this cake stuff. Then someone asks for something new. In our case, a 3D dog cake to help support the 2010 Humane Society's 2010 Gala fundraiser. Sure, we said, we can do that! Why not! And thus the learning experience began!
Although both of us are dog owners, well, apparently we'd never really studied 'dog anatomy'! Turns out it's harder than it looks to turn PVC, wood and metal into a real looking dog!! But after four (yes, four!) trips to the hardware store (thank you LOWES guys for being so patient and helpful!!) we finally got the legs, the body and the head sorted out.
We started out with 5/8th inch PVC. I should have figured out there was a reason it was all on sale, right? Turns out most of the joins, bends, and bits that you need to attach pieces of straight pipe to one another and make them bend at various angles are all, (or at least they were at LOWES!) at least 1/2 inch in diameter. Figures. So, that was trip one.
Then we had to figure out how to attach the base to the legs and to the board that would eventually support the head and the main portion of the body which was the cake. Back to the store for more parts. and bits that screwed into the parts. Trip two. Oh, and on trip one we also bought this amazing PVC pipe cutter that we're seriously considering using to cut the cake pillars...have yet to try it out but it sure beats a serrated knife all to heck!
Trip three...apparently we can't tell our assets from our elbows as we bought bends for the joints and to 'join' or support the main portion of cake with 45 degree angles instead of ninety degree angles. Seriously, this is way harder than it sounds. :) Trip four. Decided we needed a more secure way to join the base to the wood body support of the cake. Why? Because I accidentally screwed the base plates (that should have been screwed to the board supporting the base board) to the body.
Trip five and by then we knew exactly what we needed. (OK, we bought several different options that we could return because we were tired of trying to figure out the angles and properly supporting this 50 pound dog so it wouldn't fall over the minute we moved it!!) Success! I'm sorry I didn't remember to take pictures at this point, but I will try and set it up so you can see what it looks like for next time!
I have to say if anyone had told me when I started making cakes that I'd have to own almost as many 'harware store tools' as cake tools, I'm not sure I would have signed up!! LOL!! But it's been a lot of fun learning!! I definitely have a much stronger appreciation for everything I see, and don't see, on the Ace of Cakes show these days! Duff and his power tools definitely have a place in our cake world!!
Well I'm off to the hardware store to return some unused bends and bits, but we'll definitely be ready for our next 3D adventure
