Bird House Cake

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.

 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY DENICE!