I just made a baseball-cap cake this evening for my husband's birthday tomorrow. I followed the directions from Confetti Cakes somewhat closely, and came out with something that I am really really pleased with! I used my husband's favorite cap, from his pre-college days as a pizza-delivery guy, as my 'model'.
I spent four hours on this cake today - the time went by really quickly, because I was having a total blast! I baked the cake yesterday (Dec 18th), from the chocolate cake recipe provided in Elisa Strauss's book (Confetti Cakes). I wrapped the cooled cake up in Saran wrap and put it into the fridge to chill overnight - it's a chocolate fudge cake; totally delicious, and most importantly, it has a really dense crumb and can withstand all the carving.
This is roughly how I did it:
This morning I made a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream to use for icing the cake (later). This afternoon, I put all my tools and equipment together and got to work on the real project - carving and sculpting this block of cake into a baseball cap. I had baked the cake batter in three pans (an 8-inch pan, a 7-inch pan, and a 6-inch pan), so when I stacked them all on top of each other, they were already somewhat 'curved' and I created far fewer cake scraps when carving the sides away into a broad oval-shape. I carved with a really sharp bread knife mostly, and a little paring knife for the details, working carefully to create those 'dents' along the top of the cap that are supposed to look like crumples in the fabric. Then I cut away the bits of cake-board that were still sticking out, and crumb-coated the cake with my Swiss meringue buttercream. The whole thing was chilled for ten minutes while I dyed the fondant denim blue (using blue, brown and black gel food coloring). I used maybe 1-1/2 pounds of fondant total, for the hat brim AND the cap itself. (By the way, I did not make the hat brim out of gumpaste, as Elisa recommends - I made it out of fondant, since I didn't want to bother trying to match the fondant and the gumpaste when dying them separately.) I rolled the fondant out; didn't use spacers, just eye-balled to get it to approx 1/4-inch thick. Then I covered the cake with it and moulded everything carefully by hand, smoothing the fondant into the 'dents' on the cake and paying particular attention to the deep indent at the back where the headstrap would go. Trimmed extra fondant away with a paring knife and lifted the whole cake up off the counter so I could go all around the bottom edge with my fingers, smoothing and tucking the fondant in so it'd look more natural.
I used my stitching wheel for the stitching effect, dividing the cap up into six sections (Confetti Cakes says eight sections, but my husband's cap has a slightly different design). I used my piping tips (#12 and #3) to create those little rivets along the top. I used some extra fondant to make the head strap and the brim (I used my husband's actual cap as a template - took a bit of parchment paper, held it along the brim of his cap and cut around it with scissors to make a template, then cut the fondant with an X-acto knife according to the parchment template). I 'glued' the brim onto the body of the cake with water only, carefully pressing it into place. I initially used a slightly-squished empty toilet roll underneath the brim, once attached, to help give it that natural curve. I used the stitching tool along the join to make it look like it was sewn on. The toilet roll wasn't giving it quite the right shape, so I propped the whole brim up with a shaped piece of cardboard, propped up with some pieces of bunched-up kitchen towel. Finally, I diluted some gel food coloring with vanilla extract (ran out of lemon extract!) and used a soft brush to paint the entire cake to make it darker and more denim-textured. I used a tiny brush and some diluted black food coloring gel on some of the details, like the rivets, to bring them out and make them match my husband's actual cap. I made an oval plaque out of sugarpaste and painted it burgundy and green with a tiny brush and some gel food color to make it look like the "Pagliacci" pizza logo, and glued it to the front of the cap with water. Used the stitching wheel on that, too. Then, it was done! I am so incredibly THRILLED with this cake! I think he is going to be astonished and delighted with it. I love that everything about it is completely edible (except the cake card, of course!).
This is the first sculpted cake I've ever made. I'm happy to help other newbies with their baseball-cap cake projects, in whatever way I can.
Cake-carving begins (note deep indentation for where the headstrap goes):
Cap covered in fondant:
Stitching details and rivets added:
Finished cap (side view):
Finished cap (from above):
Finished cap (front view), with logo:
I spent four hours on this cake today - the time went by really quickly, because I was having a total blast! I baked the cake yesterday (Dec 18th), from the chocolate cake recipe provided in Elisa Strauss's book (Confetti Cakes). I wrapped the cooled cake up in Saran wrap and put it into the fridge to chill overnight - it's a chocolate fudge cake; totally delicious, and most importantly, it has a really dense crumb and can withstand all the carving.
This is roughly how I did it:
This morning I made a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream to use for icing the cake (later). This afternoon, I put all my tools and equipment together and got to work on the real project - carving and sculpting this block of cake into a baseball cap. I had baked the cake batter in three pans (an 8-inch pan, a 7-inch pan, and a 6-inch pan), so when I stacked them all on top of each other, they were already somewhat 'curved' and I created far fewer cake scraps when carving the sides away into a broad oval-shape. I carved with a really sharp bread knife mostly, and a little paring knife for the details, working carefully to create those 'dents' along the top of the cap that are supposed to look like crumples in the fabric. Then I cut away the bits of cake-board that were still sticking out, and crumb-coated the cake with my Swiss meringue buttercream. The whole thing was chilled for ten minutes while I dyed the fondant denim blue (using blue, brown and black gel food coloring). I used maybe 1-1/2 pounds of fondant total, for the hat brim AND the cap itself. (By the way, I did not make the hat brim out of gumpaste, as Elisa recommends - I made it out of fondant, since I didn't want to bother trying to match the fondant and the gumpaste when dying them separately.) I rolled the fondant out; didn't use spacers, just eye-balled to get it to approx 1/4-inch thick. Then I covered the cake with it and moulded everything carefully by hand, smoothing the fondant into the 'dents' on the cake and paying particular attention to the deep indent at the back where the headstrap would go. Trimmed extra fondant away with a paring knife and lifted the whole cake up off the counter so I could go all around the bottom edge with my fingers, smoothing and tucking the fondant in so it'd look more natural.
I used my stitching wheel for the stitching effect, dividing the cap up into six sections (Confetti Cakes says eight sections, but my husband's cap has a slightly different design). I used my piping tips (#12 and #3) to create those little rivets along the top. I used some extra fondant to make the head strap and the brim (I used my husband's actual cap as a template - took a bit of parchment paper, held it along the brim of his cap and cut around it with scissors to make a template, then cut the fondant with an X-acto knife according to the parchment template). I 'glued' the brim onto the body of the cake with water only, carefully pressing it into place. I initially used a slightly-squished empty toilet roll underneath the brim, once attached, to help give it that natural curve. I used the stitching tool along the join to make it look like it was sewn on. The toilet roll wasn't giving it quite the right shape, so I propped the whole brim up with a shaped piece of cardboard, propped up with some pieces of bunched-up kitchen towel. Finally, I diluted some gel food coloring with vanilla extract (ran out of lemon extract!) and used a soft brush to paint the entire cake to make it darker and more denim-textured. I used a tiny brush and some diluted black food coloring gel on some of the details, like the rivets, to bring them out and make them match my husband's actual cap. I made an oval plaque out of sugarpaste and painted it burgundy and green with a tiny brush and some gel food color to make it look like the "Pagliacci" pizza logo, and glued it to the front of the cap with water. Used the stitching wheel on that, too. Then, it was done! I am so incredibly THRILLED with this cake! I think he is going to be astonished and delighted with it. I love that everything about it is completely edible (except the cake card, of course!).
This is the first sculpted cake I've ever made. I'm happy to help other newbies with their baseball-cap cake projects, in whatever way I can.
Cake-carving begins (note deep indentation for where the headstrap goes):
Cap covered in fondant:
Stitching details and rivets added:
Finished cap (side view):
Finished cap (from above):
Finished cap (front view), with logo:
