Dumbo Cake

The Office Manager at my kids' school commissioned me to create a Dumbo cake for her daughter's 18th Birthday. After doing some internet searching, I quickly realized that I was going to have to set out to do something I've never done before--I entered into the world of gumpaste. (It's a fantastically finicky edible modeling clay of sorts.) 

And, oh, I'm so glad I did! Look at these precious elephant-like details!

I'd love to tell you that I made it so realistic because I'm that artistic and awesome, but the truth is, it's just kind of the way it turned out because I don't have the right tools to work with gumpaste. I don't have a silpat or silicone mat, so I just rolled my gumpaste out between sheets of wax paper. They crumpled and left these perfect elephantish marks in the gumpaste. How accidentally awesome is that? 

In all fairness, I did use a few make shift tools like chop sticks, toothpicks and different shaped small metal spatulas. Now that I know how cool gumpaste is, I think I might have to invest in some new toys tools. 

This has been a very busy season for me. I unexpectedly resumed my old role as Children's Ministry Director at our church at the beginning of September. As in, I dropped my kids off at school one day and rolled up my sleeves and got right to work since the launch of Fall ministries were only a few short weeks away. I've ended up putting tons and tons of time into Children's Ministry over the past 5 weeks. I've had very few moments to myself, let alone full days, so I found myself overjoyed to spend the day decorating a cake today. There's just something about spending time creating something yummy and beautiful that makes my heart happy. And, of course, it's always nice to provide something for someone else that makes their special day even more special as well!

Now that I've learned a thing or two about working with gumpaste I'm itching to try my hand at some other designs that makes use of it. I've always been opposed to using gumpaste or fondant because it doesn't taste good. And really, what's the point of making something that doesn't taste good?

BUT, now I realize how many other types of things I can do that I simply couldn't do with plain ole buttercream frosting if I tried. Well... my mind has now been changed. I say, sometimes beauty and taste can co-exist simultaneously. See, all you have to do is pluck Dumbo off the top of the cake and it still tastes yummy.

Here's a picture of the scene I was inspired by.

p.s. If you should find yourself trying to recreate a similar cake, let me let you in on a little secret. Dumbo's head is actually gumpaste wrapped around a fake apple. It cost me $1.47, which is way cheaper than buying a whole other pack of gumpaste to do the whole thing out of. Shhh... it'll be our little secret!