Trav's 30th - Hawaiian theme

JANUARY 2014

Always fun to do a hawaiian themed cake.  Both tiers are cake.  The biggest issue putting this one together was the heat.  I couldn't get the fondant to stop feeling sticky.  Even tried putting it into the bathroom being the coolest place in the house.

The first thing I did in preparation for this cake was to make the Travis figure.  The request was to put him on the cake in the outfit he'd be wearing on the night.  I had some suggestions and the client had some suggestions and I think the finished figure looked quite similar.

I was even kind enough to add in his muscles and abs :-)  The finishing touch was a cocktail in his hand relaxing on a towel.

I've got the hang of stacking cakes much more now.  This one was quite large (but not as big as the paris cake).

On the top tier I added some ground up biscuit with some cinnamon sugar dusted over the top to give the look of sand.  I was really happy with how this turned out. Previously I've used brown sugar but that's only been on the cake board.  I didn't think that would taste too nice on the cake so this was a much better solution.

Next step in assembly was to place Travis onto the cake next to his palm tree.  I made the palm tree the same way as previously but making individual leaves on wires and sticking them into the stacked trunk also onto a thicker wire.  Not loving this method but it is working.

I took the palm tree off until I was ready to deliver but really should have taken it separately as it did pull down on the cake a bit.  You live and learn.

From there I added some 'waves' to cover the cake joins.  I put some blue colouring down the sides of the piping bag so that the buttercream would have a streaked effect.  It looked quite good as waves coming to shore.

There were quite a few finer details added to this cake to complete the look.  I made the shells using gumpaste and a Wilton Sealife Mold.  The starfish was a mold from Caroline's Sugar Art - I found this one better than the one on the Wilton mold.  I brushed them with different coloured petal and lustre dust.

Previously I haven't had great success with silicone molds but I was told to spray them with cooking oil before hand - just a little - and they'll come out a lot easier.  It worked a treat.

Before putting on the sealife I added  more 'sand' all around the base of the cake.

Also added some turtles, made using gumpaste and turtle mold from Carolines Sugar Art and a family of fish.

 I struggled deciding on the colour of the lettering.  There were already quite a few colours on the cake and I didn't want it to look too out of place.  Happy with the orange in the end.

Used 3 different lettering systems to get the result.