Well, I've never done any one... But I do want to make one one day...
I'd bake two cakes of pound cake in cans, like here: http://blogolosas.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=7&blogId=2
I'd carve the top of one of them to make the neck. Then I'd cover it with dark fondant and give it a shine with oil or other things that can make fondant shine... For that I still would have to find out the best way 
What do you think?
I just did a wine bottle cake. I found a round cutter close to the size of an actual bottle. I cut out pieces from a sheet cake and stacked them with buttercream and then carved out the neck and the bottom of the bottle. Then I covered it with black fondant, used vodka & corn syrup as edible varnish, and then made the bottle seal out of gum paste. I had made the label out of gum paste in advance (as well as grapes, leaves and vines).
The real cake with filling was in the wine box. The box itself was made out of fondant with stacked chiffon cake and filling inside. I used 2 plastic dowels and a tiny board to support the bottle. I also used white chocolate shavings as box filler, but you can use fondant cut with a pizza wheel.
Hth!
Thanks tsal! Hope you are ready for some questions! LOL I just looked at your pic--great job!
How big is your box?
How did you get the sides of the fondant box to stand up higher than your cake?
How did you do the wood grain?
For the varnish, did you just thin the corn syrup w/ the vodka, or was it a certain ratio?
TIA!
Hi,
I'll have to dig out my measurements for the box - I made them exactly the same as a real wine box. I'll get back to you on that!
In terms of the sides being higher, I prepared the box panels a couple of days in advance so that they firmed up. Then I applied the 'hardened' panels to the cake - I just made sure that my cake was not as tall as the boards.
The woodgrain was a pleasant surprise, as when I looked at my panels the day after I made them, I was disappointed because they looked more clay-colored than anything. So, determined not to redo them, I took a drop of brown food color mixed in with a few drops of clear vanilla extract and brushed it on with an artist's brush. I was happy with it after that!
For the edible varnish, it was a 50/50 mix of vodka and clear corn syrup. I was most impressed with the finish and I have to give credit to CC because I learned the technique here.
Feel free to ask more questions. I think I must have asked a million questions throughout my wine-bottle cake making process.
Oh, by the way, if you have trouble carving the bottle neck and cap, make it out if gum paste and insert a skewer into it. Then you can insert the skewer into the bottle part to secure it and then cover it with fondant.
Have fun with it and I'm here for support!
I just made my first wine bottle cake last week. I made the wine bottle out of fondant by simpling wrapping black fondant around an empty clean wine bottle that was laying down (I coated it in corn starch first to make it easier to remove the fondant once hardened. Therefore it was only half of the bottle. The wine crate was the cake. I shaved white chocolate to look like packaging material. The box was formed from fondant panels and secured to cake with buttercream. Thanks go to CC for the ideas.
Wow Pooky...another great cake. So my question to you and tsal, is did you tint your fondant (for the panels) first?
And Pooky, did you let your panels "set" first so that they would stand up taller than your cake? What size is your cake? And how did you do your label?
And tsal, don't worry about the exact measurements. I was just wondering about an approx size.
Thanks much to both you! I really appreciate all of your input!
The fondant panels were tinted brown before letting them dry and the trick to getting the wood grain look is to not knead the coloring into the fondant all the way. if you stop short of that and roll it out you will see the lines of the coloring and they resemble wood grain. my photo angle does not show this. I did let the panels dry completely (several days) and had to trim them according to the actual size of the baked cake, which was a 1/2 sheet cake cut in half lengthwise and stacked. As to the label, I painted on fondant using a few drops of vodka mixed with a small amount of coloring gel. Start with a tiny amount of vodka and add more until you get the painting consistency you want. For the gold, I mixed vodka with pearl dust. Good luck!
I really didn't do anything to dry the fondant panels except place the cut out panels on a cake board and left them to dry on their own for several days inside a cabinet. Once they were stiff enough to handle (but not completely dry) I flipped them over so they could finsih drying all the way through to both sides. Just be careful when handling...it would be awful to drop or crack one. One thing I wish I had thought to do once the cake was assembled was to go back and add finishing touches to the wood to make it look more realistic.
That looks great and delicious. I might include it in the wine gourmet gift basket that I was planning to get for my dad. Thanks a lot for the inspiration.
I made a wine bottle cake once. It was a very short notice so I did everything on the fly. I had a wine bottle that I laid out and placed corn starch over and then fondant. I used the big tomato soup cans and baked some cake in those and placed that behind the fondant once it was hard enough. I had to use a real paper for the wrapper because it was a last minute thing. It all worked really well.
There is a photo here:
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