Camouflage: No easy way out.
Raise your hand if your arms and wrists start to ache the minute you get a camouflage cake order.
Yep, I am seeing quite a few hands going up. Doing camo in buttercream is a rather tedious process. Piping blobs of icing in alternating colors, smoothing, repeat, repeat, repeat…. till either you finish your cake or your arm falls off. Whichever comes first.
A while back I got an order for a camo fishing hat for a little boy’s birthday. I wanted it to look very realistic; like a real hat. I did not think buttercream camo would give me the look I wanted. So I started to brainstorm about a way to do it in fondant. An easier and less painful way than buttercream.
Guess what. It wast not easier nor less painful. It was more so. It took for-ev-er. My children had birthdays that I missed in the time it took to do this hat. It was very tedious and labor intensive.
BUT….. it looked friggin’ awesome man! It looked like a real fabric hat! People were amazed that it was cake. The press came to my house to report about it. The President called to congratulate me. They put up a plaque in my honor at the Wildlife and Fisheries Museum here in New Orleans. Yes folks, it looked just that good.
Oh wait, none of that happened. That was the exhaustion induced dream I had that night.
Anyway, let me show you guys how to do this technique if you ever lose your mind enough to give it a try:
First I carved 2 layers of round cake to have a slight taper up the sides. I also carved some small indentations into the sides to give the look of rumpled fabric, like a truly worn hat. That was crumb coated and covered with a very thin layer of white fondant.
The camouflage layer was made by putting “puzzle pieces” of the colored fondant together side by side. First I penciled the camo pattern onto a piece of paper, marked them the color I wanted each to be, and then cut those pieces out. Each piece was used as a template to cut out the corresponding color of fondant.
Each piece of colored fondant was stuck to a thin layer of white fondant underneath with a little water. This under layer of fondant was there to ensure that the pieces stayed together and did not fall apart when I picked up the larger finished piece. I kept the whole piece under plastic while I was working on it to prevent it from drying out.
When I got one piece big enough to cover the top of the hat, I used a slightly fabric textured mat on it to give a little bit more of a fabric look. That piece was then glued to the top of the hat with water. And the excess hanging over the sides of the top of the hat was cut off with an exacto knife.
The same process was followed to make a piece to apply to the sides. I used two pieces to wrap around the sides, and covered the side seems later.
Here is one side piece in place and the top edge trimmed flush with the top of the cake.
Here is the 2nd side piece in place, about to be trimmed on top.
The same process was done to cover a cardboard cake circle, which served as the brim of the hat. The cake part was put on top of this cake circle.Then I used strips of green fondant, and some strings from the clay gun to finish off the cake and hide all of the seems. My stitching tool was used to put a stitching effect on the wider strips of green fondant.
The fishing lures and dog tags were made of gumpaste and painted silver.
I doweled the base cake and put the camo hat on top.
And here is the finished product:
Ta dah! Pretty cool huh? It really did come out great and had a very realistic and clean look. My client and I were both very happy.
Give it a try if you have a chance. If you are like me, you will do it once because the cake artist in you must conquer it. Then you will never do it again. LOL
Seriously, I hope you guys try this. It was time consuming, but very fun to watch it all come together. Be sure to send me pics if you do!
Happy caking,
Sharon
That is officially AWESOME! and looks exactly like my dad's hunting hat!
Super job – as if you would do anything less!!
Are you sure the President didn't call?
Wow! All I can say is wow! I wouldn't have known where to begin to make camo but you make it sound so logical. What a great job!
You could never do something else then PERFECT !!!!
And….i am sure that one those VIPs called you ;O))
Absolutely love it! Just in time to, I will be doing an army theme babyshower cake for my friend who's Hubby served in Iraq, it's their first and it's a boy!
Brilliant!
Wow.. the cake looks awesome.I love visiting your blog.
Amazing as usual. I'm so happy to see how you did it. I am actually going to watch Boxes and Bows now and work out on the mini tramp. Multi tasking.
Thanks for sharing and happy birthday to your kids.
Wow! What an amazing cake but we expect nothing less from you Sharon. This is very timely for me as I have to do a camo cake for my boss next week and was wondering how to do it in fondant. Thanks so much.
I always thought this was an awesome cake, and thought I'd ultimately have to make it for deer season here in Pennsylvania, but not yet:) Before you posted this, I thought you had laid cutouts overlapping on fondant and rolled it out to meld them. This looks perfect! Thanks so much, as I'm sure it's in my future! -Kim
sweetiesbykim@aol.com
I am always thought this cake was awesome from the frist time I saw it. Now after reading and seeing how you put it all together, I think you are for sure the most AWESOME!
You did a outstanding job on the camo look and all the details, Thanks! for sharing the info how to do it. Merry Christmas!
It is unbelievable…BUT you have lost your mind! 🙂
Sharon,
I have always admired this cake when viewing your cakes online; however, just reading how you created this hat, wore me out! WOW! It was a lot of work, but boy it sure did turn out GREAT! Thanks so much for sharing your techniques!
Very impressive! Almost too pretty to eat.
glad i found your site, i am making a rey misterio cake for my 11 yr old nephew and he wants a camo background…wish me luck. if it turns out half as nice as yours i'll send a pic!!!!
(ya do have me a little nervous, so i figure i'll start doing the camo now then put the finishing touches on the cake tomorrow…)
this is fabulous!
I absolutely LOVE this camouflage hat cake! I am dying to try a "camo" cake, even though it is going to be tough. I was wondering if you could tell me how to make a camo stencil, or if you could forward me a copy of the stencil you used? I can be contacted via email at: ilfsuf2009@gmail.com. I'm planning on making a camo cake for my brother in-law's 40th birthday cake this November.
Thanks!
That is FANTASTIC! Great job!