Electric Guitar Cake
Most people who know me know that I love to cook. I have my own Facebook cooking site where I post my recipe's. I never post a recipe unless I've made it and generally I like to keep it low cost and easy. My greatest passion is to get people back into the kitchen, cooking healthy and yummy meals with the odd treat or two (or three or four).
But recently I've tried my hand at cake decorating - and I love it!! Cake decorating brings out the child in me who loved to play with playdough when we were fortunate enough to have some made for us. But this time I can use my imagination and share it with others. Cake decorating allows me to use that child like part of me and combine it with my love of cooking to create something unique and fun.
I am by far an amateur. But I'm not a bad amateur either! My perfectionist nature, or should I say, my nature that wants to be excellent in all I do, has allowed me to learn quite quickly. Don't get me wrong, I have a VERY long way to go! But I have time and people keep having birthdays, anniversary's or special occasions which will keep me happy.
In May I made this guitar cake for our youth pastor's 21st birthday. His lovely wife asked if I could do a cake and left it up to me as to what it was. I had decided on either a sports cake or a guitar - as he does both. But I was keen to try this electric guitar even though at first I really thought I'd bitten off a lot more than I could chew! As someone who does not like to fail it did bring out some anxiety in me but I also love a challenge - so went for it.
The cake itself is a lovely rich chocolate cake which can be found on my cooking site. Oh yes - you can find me via Facebook on 'The Salmela Family Kitchen.' I printed off a template of the guitar and a photo and went to work.
I cut out two of the guitar head, neck and tuning stock and filled the middle with a chocolate ganache. Once it set, I crumb caked it with butter cream. Crumb caking is simply taking a small amount of butter cream and covering the cake thereby securing the crumbs so they don't stick to the fondant. Once this was done I did a thicker layer of butter cream for taste and also to give the fondant something to stick to. I left it to dry for a few hours before I began covering.
I started by covering the top with blue fondant. I must add here that I made my own fondant for this cake. Fondant is quite easy to make but I have found that home made fondant can crack easier than bought fondant. Since then I have used bought fondant for covering and home made for decorating. The trick with home made fondant is to use very little cornflour when working with it as it tends to dry it out. I use gel colours for colouring fondant because liquid colours make the fondant too sticky. It was a bit tricky covering it, and yes I can see the mistakes, but for my first covering of a cake this size, it wasn't too bad!
I covered the neck of the guitar in black fondant and the tuning stock in brown. I had already made a lot of the decorations in silver (by adding just a small amount of black gel to white fondant) so that they could set a little. I made the rest of the decorations from a photo I had printed from the internet and used licorice straps for the strings and guitar strap. Templates are also easy to get from the internet which I used for the guitar head where the buttons are. I attached the silver buttons with toothpicks and cut out the happy birthday message with fondant cutters.
This is the finished product. I was so pleased how it turned out and so was the birthday boy and his wife. In fact, this cake was enjoyed by many at our church and will be well remembered. I was honoured to have had the chance to make it and learn so much as I went along.
But recently I've tried my hand at cake decorating - and I love it!! Cake decorating brings out the child in me who loved to play with playdough when we were fortunate enough to have some made for us. But this time I can use my imagination and share it with others. Cake decorating allows me to use that child like part of me and combine it with my love of cooking to create something unique and fun.
I am by far an amateur. But I'm not a bad amateur either! My perfectionist nature, or should I say, my nature that wants to be excellent in all I do, has allowed me to learn quite quickly. Don't get me wrong, I have a VERY long way to go! But I have time and people keep having birthdays, anniversary's or special occasions which will keep me happy.
In May I made this guitar cake for our youth pastor's 21st birthday. His lovely wife asked if I could do a cake and left it up to me as to what it was. I had decided on either a sports cake or a guitar - as he does both. But I was keen to try this electric guitar even though at first I really thought I'd bitten off a lot more than I could chew! As someone who does not like to fail it did bring out some anxiety in me but I also love a challenge - so went for it.
The cake itself is a lovely rich chocolate cake which can be found on my cooking site. Oh yes - you can find me via Facebook on 'The Salmela Family Kitchen.' I printed off a template of the guitar and a photo and went to work.
I started by covering the top with blue fondant. I must add here that I made my own fondant for this cake. Fondant is quite easy to make but I have found that home made fondant can crack easier than bought fondant. Since then I have used bought fondant for covering and home made for decorating. The trick with home made fondant is to use very little cornflour when working with it as it tends to dry it out. I use gel colours for colouring fondant because liquid colours make the fondant too sticky. It was a bit tricky covering it, and yes I can see the mistakes, but for my first covering of a cake this size, it wasn't too bad!
I covered the neck of the guitar in black fondant and the tuning stock in brown. I had already made a lot of the decorations in silver (by adding just a small amount of black gel to white fondant) so that they could set a little. I made the rest of the decorations from a photo I had printed from the internet and used licorice straps for the strings and guitar strap. Templates are also easy to get from the internet which I used for the guitar head where the buttons are. I attached the silver buttons with toothpicks and cut out the happy birthday message with fondant cutters.
This is the finished product. I was so pleased how it turned out and so was the birthday boy and his wife. In fact, this cake was enjoyed by many at our church and will be well remembered. I was honoured to have had the chance to make it and learn so much as I went along.
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