I have an upcoming cake to do for a friend. She's a member of a book club so naturally, she wants a cake shaped like a book (20 ppl).

I don't know where to start. I attempted to PM about 10 different people on here who had awesome books in their gallery, however, a lot of them were from almost a week ago and I still haven't heard anything.

Can someone out there give me a little direction on how to make a single book. How they carved it, whatever...just something!

Thanks!

the only help i can offer is that (i believe) wilton makes a pan shaped like an open book.

good luck, i hope someone can help you better than i can.

The Wilton open book pan would work great. If you want a closed book there's no carving needed. Just use a rectangular pan. coat the whole thing in bc, put a heavier coat of bc on 3 edges and use a decorating comb to make page edges. Roll out fondant for the cover and spine and apply. then embellish with a title, book binding, etc.

try searching the forums. I remember someone describing how they made a stack of books cake but you could modify the instructions to only make one book.

do you want an open book or closed?

I usually use my Wilton book pan, but i've seen on Ace of Cakes for an open book cake they stacked several sheet cakes and began carving in the middle i believe. It looked really simple.

Thank you so much everyone! yes, I want a closed book. Leah, you were a fantastic help as always! Any additional information would be fantastic as well!

One step I forgot. Lay down the back cover of the book on your board first. Then put the cake down. And do all the other steps.

Follow leahs directions to a tee... I tried it in all buttercream and it was HARD! the pics are in my photos. My original plan was to do 9x13 sheet cakes stacked but they wanted smaller books and more of them so I ended up using square pans and cutting them down to rectangles.

Thanks so much stephaniescakenj...that was very helpful!

. . . this thread may shed some light . . . http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-584731-book.html+tutorial . . . and don't forget to read leily's thread within the thread . . .

how I did mine:

the books were easy just time consuming. a thick piece of white scored fondant with the lines was placed on the 3 sides for the pages. the spine and top cover were one piece. i added a TON of tylose to the colored fondant. rolled it out just under 1/4 inch thick. let it set up some before i put it on the cake. go no more than 1/4 inch over the top edge of the cake or cover will droop. I propped the corners up with viva for a while so they would not droop. the bottm "cover" is just strips (1/4 inch wide) applied along the bottom white part of the pages.

And that's why I didn't do mine in fondant. I couldn't decide if I should roll a piece of fondant out so big that I could cover top and bottom at once or if I should do strips at the bottom with fondant to show the bottom cover and just cover the side and top. I stressed over it for a week and finally at the last minute stuck with what I knew... good ole' buttercream. Sharon's way does sound easier, I have trouble rolling out fondant without it sticking or tearing so not having to roll out a big piece to cover top and bottom might be easier. good luck! I've sworn off books for life. Not to scare you or anything! : ) Let us know when you post the cake.