So, I got it together and entered the Threadcakes contest this year. It's a contest where you make a cake inspired by the Threadless Tshirt designs. I chose carefully, and entered a feather cake. Check out the link! http://www.threadcakes.com/entries/view/932 I made the feathers out of gumpaste, which is an edible sugar dough. You roll it out like a pie dough, then I cut out the feathers individually using a cookie cutter. Then I embossed a vein and cut notches into the side of each one. Then, I hand painted them with food coloring to get the look I needed. That took forever. Fortunately, gumpaste can stay covered for about a week. Plus, it needs time to dry, so it gets hard.
Then I made the cakes, my trusty vanilla recipe. 2 8 inch layers and 2 6 inch layers. Yum! Then I made 2 batches of vanilla frosting. Once I had leveled the cakes, I frosted them and let them chill for a while. Then the fun part, fondant!
Fondant is also a sugar dough, but it doesn't get hard like gum paste. I rolled it out and covered each cake, then stacked them. Pretty!
The I attached the feathers using royal icing, which is sugar and meringue powder and water. It's like glue. I kept adding more and more feathers until I couldn't add no more.
I took the cake to Jason's office so everyone could enjoy it. It was kinda sad to cut into it, but it actually cut nicely too. Everyone loved it, and ate it up in minutes. Sugar rush!
I took pictures of the whole process, to submit to the contest. So check out the link above and hope for the best!
