Camera Cake

It was Rich's Uncle's birthday yesterday.  Since he is a photographer, Rich commissioned me to make him a camera cake! That husband of mine...he has so many good ideas! 

Let me remind you that I am not such an experienced cake maker/designer. The first fondant cake that I made was a Montreal Canadien's Cake for Rich's birthday last year.  The second one that I made was a cake for my mom's 60th a few months ago. So...I guess this would be my third attempt at being the Cake Boss. This project was different though.  It involved making a cake in the shape of an actual camera. Here's how I did it.

First, I traced my own camera on a piece of green cardstock, cut it out and made it into a stencil. Next, I placed it on top of the rectangular cooled cake and cut around the edges of the stencil with a knife.  This created the first layer. I repeated this step to create a second layer. I smeared chocolate fudge frosting on the first layer which acted as glue that held the two layers together. To create the "camera lense," I cut out a circle using a circle cookie cutter and attached it to the main part of the cake with toothpicks.

Dirty icing the cake adheres the fondant to it.  This part was really messy!  Note to self, when dirty icing a cake, stick to vanilla frosting!  The chocolate frosting seemed thicker than vanilla, and made a big mess! While the cake chilled in the fridge, I prepared the fondant.

To make black fondant, I added about 2 teaspoons of Wilton black Icing Color to white fondant. Remember to always wear gloves to colour fondant!  

I melted some white candy melts and put them into a piping bag to pipe some other details.

The cake really began to take shape.

For an amateur, it looked alright!

Rich was really impressed.

But George's reaction was priceless!  He was thrilled and did not want to eat the cake!

The photographer in action!

Have you seen any of George's work before?  He is a very talented landscape photographer. Check out the trailer for one of his DVDs, Unforgettable Canada.  The photos in the DVD are from his best seller, "Unforgettable Canada" that sold over 50, 000 copies.

It was hard to cut into the cake, but we managed!

Happy Birthday George!