Thursday, July 1, 2010

Tutorial: The Twilight Cake

Twilight Cake

With The Twilight Saga: Eclipse out in theaters this week, I thought it was about time that I finally write about the cake I made last month. It was for my dearest friend, Juls. She's the biggest Twilight fan I know and so when her birthday came around this year, I just knew I had to make her this cake.

Since I'm not too familiar with the Twilight series, I had to do a little bit of research.  I looked at the book covers and tried to figure out how to incorporate all the elements into one cake. The black background was the first thing that jumped out at me so that became the main color of the cake.  I decided to make the symbols on the book covers out of rolled fondant and place them on top of the cake. As for the flavor, there was no debate; it had to be a red velvet cake.

Twilight Cake - top

I thought it would be a cool idea to write popular book quotes on the side of the cake. I didn't want to ask Juls because I wanted it to be a surprise so I just searched for them online.  I used a small paintbrush and a mixture of silver luster dust and vodka to write the quotes onto the cake.

Here are some of the book quotes I decided to use:

"And So the lion fell in love with the lamb.
What a stupid lamb.
What a sick masochistic lion."


“If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I’m not ashamed of it.”

"I promise to love you forever, every single day forever; will you marry me?"

Twilight Cake

For the scrollwork pattern, I made fondant scrolls and attached them around the base of the cake. I painted them with the same silver luster dust/vodka mixture as I did with the book quotes.

Twilight Cake - scroll border

For the apple, I rolled some fondant into a ball and gently pressed around the top with my thumbs.  To create the stem, I just rolled a tiny piece of fondant and attached it to the top of the apple. I painted it red and brown using Wilton icing colors.

Twilight Cake - apple

For the ruffled tulip, I used the tools in my Wilton Flower Making Set.  I cut out a piece of rolled fondant and pressed it inside the leaf mold. Then I ruffled the edges using the foam pad and one of the sticks. I made two more petals using the same technique.  For the falling petal, I used a small rose petal cutter. I arranged the petals so they would look just like the ruffled tulip on the New Moon book cover and used a very thin paintbrush to color it red.  For the stem, I just took a skinny piece of fondant and painted it green.

Twilight Cake - ruffled tulip

For the ribbon, I took a long piece of rolled fondant and cut it into two pieces.  To create the frayed edge, I used a paring knife and basically dragged the knife across several times.  I shaped the ribbon to look like the Eclipse book cover and then painted it with red food coloring.

Twilight Cake - ribbon

The chess pieces were basically shapes made out of rolled fondant that I stacked on top of each other.  For the pawn, I made three round discs on the bottom, an hourglass for the middle and another round disc and a ball for the top.  The queen was made pretty much the same way except for the crown. I took a strip of rolled fondant and used a rose petal cutter to shape the top of the crown. I wrapped the strip around a ball and placed a tiny ball at the very top. I used my FMM geometrical cutter set to make four white squares for the chessboard. I arranged them in the center of the cake and placed the pawn and the queen across from each other using two of the white squares.

Twilight Cake - pawn and queen

When Juls saw the cake for the first time, she was absolutely blown away. She loved it so much that she couldn't bear the thought of cutting it.  Seriously, she really didn't want to cut her cake.  Eventually, I managed to convince her to finally cut it because I promised her I'd make her an exact replica in a fake cake.  She decided to display her fake Twilight cake on her bookshelf next to her Twilight series :-)

27 comments:

Marcia H said...

oh my god, this looks wonderful

I'm a big fan of the Twilight Saga and just loved it.

Sugar Siren said...

looks great, good job

Becky said...

Great job on the cake! How did you get everything to look so shiny?

Art of Dessert said...

Thanks everyone!

Hi Becky! I put the cake in the fridge after I was done decorating it, so that definitely contributed to the shine. Also, I just painted the Wilton icing colors directly onto the cake and decorations at their full concentration. That might have helped with the shine too.

Eloy said...

You are absolutely amazing Rianne. I love this cake. Fantastic attention to detail. Nothing more to say except, "gorgeous".

Vivian said...

Great cake. Really good job.....I know a bunch of twilight saga fans will be giving 2 thumbs up on your work. :)

Allison said...

omg. this cake is SO awesome.

Anonymous said...

As a HUGE Twilight fan, this just made me so happy. I want this for my next birthday.

Stella said...

Wow! I just saw this on F.G. I amazed at this type of skill. Probably b/c I just can't decorate or make things look like 'things' (smile)!

Anonymous said...

Great job! I wish I had your cake decorating skills. :)

Lacey said...

Great job! Looks awesome.

Liz said...

I just happened to find your blog. I can't say I know anything about Twilight, but that cake is gorgeous!

Fiona said...

Amazing cake. I have always wanted to be able to do things like that but I think my skills lie elsewhere. You should be really proud of yourself!

Anonymous said...

Your cake is absolutely amazing!!!! You pay such great attention to detail and it shows. Keep up the fantatic work and thank you for starting this blog. It's amazing!!! :)

Bri said...

Oh my gosh. I NEED that cake!

Rach said...

Just bumped into your blog and fell in love with this Gorgeous looking cake :) Amazing space here, love to follow you :)

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Jenniffer said...

I just found your blog too and I am really digging this cake! You do great work!!

CW said...

I'm blown away! This is great work. Was it red velvet inside? Wish you were hosting cake decorating classes..I'd be there for sure :-)

Anonymous said...

nice dessert,..

Anonymous said...

how nice the decorating of the cake,..
is wonderful,..

v said...

it is perfect
i love it

Catzie said...

Wow. This is a very interesting cake. Looks wonderful :D

Anonymous said...

Hi,what did you used for the cake,that the colours are so shiny?And did you used also Wilson black color to cover the cake?This is the one of the most beautifull cake i ever saw,i want it so bad for my birthday since i picked a twilight theme.Please help!Nicole

Art of Dessert said...

Thank you Nicole! Yes, first I covered the cake with white rolled fondant and then I painted it with Wilton black icing color.

Anonymous said...

Hi,im back again.Today I bought everything that i need to make the cake.I do not have any experience but i will do my best.Here are my questions:
1.Will be enought the Wilton black color to cover all the cake?I bought the set with 12 colours.
2.For the fondant i found Wilton Rolled Fondant.It is hard like a rock,how im i gonna knead it?
Thank you soo much for your previous answer.I will also send you a photo with the cake.Nicole

Art of Dessert said...

Hi Nicole! 1. I got the 1 oz. jar of Wilton black icing color just to make sure I didn't run out but I think the 1/2 oz jar from the 12 set will be good. It's pretty concentrated. 2. To make it easier to knead, remove the fondant from the foil wrapper, place in on a plate and microwave it just for 5-10 seconds. That will make it easier to roll :-) Hope this helps.

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