This is by far the most fun cake I have made. My sister-in-law LOVES birds and for her birthday I knew that I wanted to make a birdhouse cake for her. I went on google and typed in bird cake images and found a slew of ideas for this project. Believe me there are many wonderful cake decorators out there with awesome ideas.
How I chose what to do is simple. I wanted a clean and detailed cake design that I, a novice, could do. I know that I am not proficient at clean straight lines so I picked a round design. I used 8 " round cake pans and made four layers. I used my small Pyrex bowl for the round top and trimmed the bottom to fit the height I wanted. I also used stabelizers to support the roof and weight.
I made my yellow Black Eyed Susans out of gum paste and used the daisy cutter. I used petal dust as a finisher. For the centers I used a mold to create it, covered it with smokey petal dust and bronze sparkle dust. For the leaves I used a vainer to get the right look on the leaves and then brushed bronze petal dust on the edges. I wanted the house to have a glittered look but not too overwhelming. I also used a mold to make the little blue bird on the branch to the left of the door. The mold I found in Walmart. It's a Wilton mold with tree branches, flowers, leaves, and bird all on one.
I made a white cake with a chocolate ganache filling. White cakes are hard because they are crumbly. I need to find one that isn't too dense but not so crumbly either.
The red flowers on the cake I made while at my Mom's this past summer. I was practicing different types of flowers and I liked this trumpet shaped flower so I stored them until I found the right project. They were the perfect fit for color in this arrangement.
For the base fondant color of the birdhouse itself I chose an eggshell blue. My sister's favorite bird color. She also loves the warm oranges and browns of fall so this worked out perfect for her.
I brushed the smokey petal dust on the bird house first to give it an outdoor worn look. Then I used the bronze dust over that. It look perfect. For the roof I cut shapes out with the heart shaped cutter and brushed them with the same dusts. Before I brushed the house and the roof tiles I used a roller "cutter" to gently score lines to simulate wood grain. I was a bit worried at first because the dust didn't go on evenly. But I realized that it looked more rustic by allowing the dust to "cling" to areas on the fondant. Look at the back. It seems to have a swath across it. It just looked rustic and so I left it.
The two ceramic birds are salt and pepper shakers that I gave to her as her birthday present. As you can see my sister-in-law was VERY please with her cake.
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| HAPPY BIRTHDAY DENICE! |
