Travel

Apopular moving company once had a slogan “Adventures in Moving.” And as anyone who has ever moved can attest, it can be just that — an adventure.

Traveling is like moving but on a grander scale. It can be richer and more rewarding, especially if it is recorded in CAKE! Sometimes travel plans are not thought about when wanting a cake, but how many oooh’s and ahhh’s can there be when the travel arrangements are put to cake? It could be quite a send-off or quite a welcome for friends or family. Ask us how you can have oooh’s and ahhh’s, too, for your next travel arrangements.

How would you display an airplane flying over an island or a touring trip of the United States? Or, for that matter, a cruise in the open sea? These were just three ideas that entered the baking oven here at Is It Really Cake?

Airplane Cake

The airplane was created by using a simple plastic water bottle as its armature. Aluminum wings were fashioned so that they rested on the bottle. The bottle itself was bolted to a back vertical wood base. White chocolate was then carefully added and modeled to the shape of the plane. Marshmallows were used as the engines of the plane. The backdrop scene was first shaped using rice krispies and laid against a supported bent fiber board. The treats were then crumb coated with butter cream frosting. A skyscape was then printed on edible paper and placed on the backboard wrapping the edges so that there would be a believable “depth appearance.” The island was then made of chocolate cake covered with colored frosting and the combined islands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were made in chocolate. To affect more dimensions between the plane and the printed clouds, clouds made of cotton candy were created and mounted on the backdrop. The effect was more stunning in real life than what a photograph can depict. Everyone took out their camera phones.

Boat Cake

Boats can be daunting in cake designing. Angles, shapes and sizes play a big part. The cake displayed here was for a boat enthusiast, who loves to go and come via boats. The open sea was his terrain and perhaps fishing was part of this. A chocolate cake covered by fondant was the choice for this creation.

Little hand-painted crustaceans adorn this boat. A non-edible picture was used to depict the traveler and placed behind the cake for depth perception. No one got sea-sick over this cake but some might have gotten a sugar over-load as it was very tasty.

Touring the USA

Touring the USA can be quite an adventure in itself. Not just in choosing the route but also when considering the many places seen and experienced. Having a family with two young boys in tow makes this trip much more memorable, as you can imagine. So it was with this family, a welcome home cake was done. Chocolate seems to be popular with people who visit our site so here again a delicious chocolate cake was made of the good old USA with their route shown. The caricatured family was drawn on white cardboard and set behind the cake. Can you imagine the kind of experiences felt by this family when you see their expressions and the route they took? Did I mention that this route was made during the winter months?

Off to Ireland

The young woman this cake was intended for had a strong desire to help people of all kinds and nationalities. Ireland was the chosen place — right smack in the center of that little country, the township of Athlone. She traveled via American Airlines along with five other young girls and all spent about six months finding people who wanted to learn about the Bible. We at Is It Really Cake? wanted to make this trip memorable for this caring woman, so we created this geographical chocolate cake covered with colored butter cream frosting. The elevated hand and plane were actually cake pieces and not formed from rice krispy treats. The shown flowers were fabric. It proved to be a nice send off for her.

Travel Cake’s Journey

Let’s suppose you had an idea for a cake design and it did not fit within the round or square formats of many cakes today. How might you go about doing, what might be called, a sculpted cake?

Well, you first need some cake, duh. Then some frosting, store bought or from scratch—used to ‘glue’ cake pieces together, a board on which to place your creation and a few kitchen tools, including a serrated knife to carve with. These are the basics but there is a whole lot more you could acquire to perform your magic. Now here comes the most important ingredient, your imagination! Don’t worry too much about your ability as yet for, if you notice, whatever you create, however it looks, it is sure to be welcomed and delicious. See the picture of my first sculpted cake on the about page of this website.

The steps you take may be similar to the ones shown here; it’s of a travel cake I did for someone moving to Oregon traveling by car through the Mount Shasta scenery. A step not shown though is that after you have carved your desired shapes and ‘glued’ them in place; lightly cover everything in frosting or butter cream, this is called crumb coating or sealing the cake to help prevent crumbs from getting elsewhere. Then, if you can, stick your sculptured cake in a refrigerator or even the freezer, if it fits, for a few minutes. This will help firm up the cake and allow further decorating without pieces moving around too much—not necessary to do this though.

Have fun!