The request was for a patriotic cake to celebrate her husband's recent retirement from the Air Force. She sent me a few pictures of cakes she liked. I took inspiration from all of them and created my own unique take on the military retirement cake...
Six layers chocolate cake, filled with chocolate buttercream, covered with vanilla buttercream.
I ended up having to design my own template for the boots.
(Pretty sure my google searches made the watch dogs twitchy.)
I knew they would have plenty of time to dry, so I went with fondant instead of gumpaste. There were multiple components to piece together and I knew the gumpaste would dry out on me too fast. Hand painted. Because it's always a good day when I get to break out my paintbrushes.
I wanted to use dog tags to help tell his story. I stamped his name and years of service into them, then painted with silver luster for a metallic finish. The "chain" is pieced together with edible pearls.
I hand painted the flag while it was still flat. I gave it long enough to dry the colors but not the fondant. I was delighted to have it drape and move just how it had in my head--without smearing the colors! Some days--the cake gods smile down on us mortals, and it all comes together.
And then disaster struck. It's been a really cool, almost cold, spring. Until this past Saturday. I was still using my cool weather buttercream formula. And it was so soft. Every step ended with a brief hang out in the 'fridge to firm back up. Until the boots went on. Then it was straight into the box and carrying tote. The delivery run was stressful. First bump, I realized I hadn't anchored the boots down like I would have in the warmer months. All I could envision was the one sliding off, and taking half the top tier with it. Once at the destination (fortunately it was a house with a kitchen) I pulled the cake box out of the tote, it tilted slightly and I felt a thump! Gah!
I took it straight to the kitchen. Slowly lifted up the top of the box...and the whole cake had slid forward. Completely wiping out all of the writing and the bottom bead work. And the one time I didn't have a repair kit with me. Never again! I did get it cleaned up. The lower edge ended up with a blue streak that looked like it was an intentional part of the design. So not such a disaster really. But enough to make my heart sink!
Lots of cakes currently on the calendar for the next few months.
Important lessons learned. Always carry a repair kit! And anchor everything. Everything!
