My dear friend Kim linked me to a cake by another artist that was the perfect inspiration for the wave scene. Thank you Kim! You saved my booty!
I knew I needed an armature of some kind to mold white modeling chocolate over. PVC pipe was too thick. I tried Tinker Toys but they were too thick and bulky as well. Double thickness 18 gauge wire wrapped in floral tape did the trick. (You see two in this picture because I did not like the first rib cage I made and started over.)
It was sturdy enough to hold the weight of the modeling chocolate. When I formed him out of the wire, I left about 5 inches of extra wire below the feet, which went down into the dummy while I made him. That extra wire later went thru the surf board and down into the wave to anchor him in place.
I then molded the modeling chocolate around the wires to form his body parts. After he was firm, I used petal dusts to give him some creepy color.
The surf board was cut from thin Styrofoam. I printed out a paper template of the board using clip art. You see the reject skeleton lying there because I used him to help determine the size of the surfboard.
After I cut out the styro, I rounded the sides of the boards with another piece of styro , using it as sanding paper. (Learned that in a Colette Peters demo.)
Then it was time to form the wave out of modeling chocolate. I used both white and dark chocolate paste, because I had both on hand. It weighed a ton too! Again I used the reject surf board and skele to help me determine the size and shape of the wave. I made the wave on top of a thin piece of foam core board.
Another view of the wave. It didn’t look like much of anything at this point and I was a tad worried if I would get the wave to come out looking right.
The sheet cake was then covered in white fondant, doweled well, and the wave put on top.
To make the palm trees, I used plastic hidden pillars and wrapped them in brown fondant with tylose added.
I scored the sides with a skewer to make the palm bark look, and threaded them over another skewer to let them dry firm.
I airbrushed them to give them depth of color. They were not as dark as they are showing up in these photos. The palm leaves were made from fondant using a generic leaf cutter. Each was individually wired, then wired together in a bunch, and then that was threaded down into the hole of the pillar.
I rough iced the wave in blue buttercream, and then came back with very thin white buttercream and brushed it on with a small fan brush to create the foam of the crashing wave. Processed graham crackers were glued to the white fondant with piping gel. The skewers are marking the holes I dug down into the modeling chocolate. Once I arrived at the party, I put the surf board on the wave, and threaded the skeleton’s leg wires down thru the board and into the wave.
Wow Sharon! That is the coolest cake! You are so clever:}
that is so cool!!!! of course YOU could pull off an awesome skeleton surfer!
Sharon…you are a GENIUS!!!This looks so COOL!!!And thanks for the tutorial !! xxx
This looks so COOL! Thanks for the step/step!
Awesome cake!
So very cool! Thanks for sharing all the tips!
The skeleton is awesome. Thanks for the detailed instrustions.
Sharon,
WOW! Is all I can say about your skeleton and the cake as a whole! Great job, thanks so much for your step by step instructions, great tips in there! I agree with you, making cakes for family, although is usually not profitable, it's truly stress free! Thanks again for sharing and what a wonderful job you did on this cake, too cool!!!!
Sharon, you are the master at cake decorating. I love it and can't wait to see your next creation.
Kim D
AMAZING! I STILL DON'T GET HOW YOU GOT THE RIBS SO PERFECT. Thanks for sharing. I'm watching topsy turvey dvd as we speak.
That skeleton is just genius! You never cease to amaze!
Sharon,
Is there anything you can't create! You are an amazing cake artist. Thank you for sharing.
Fabulous cake! Love the skeleton! Thanks for sharing the details!
You did a fantastic job, I love the surfing skeleton. You are such an artist Sharon. Thank you for sharing the details.