The Making of a TMNT Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this post, I will be showing you how to make this colorful two tier teenage mutant ninja turtles cake. It really is not a very difficult cake to make. It however requires a lot of attention to details. Like a lot of my cakes, some elements of this cake need to be made ahead of time. Not only would making them ahead of time give them time to dry properly, it would also reduce the amount of work you have to do when designing the actual cake. To read more about this cake, see other views of it and have access to the cake and frosting recipes used, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PROCESS:

(1) The first thing you need to do is make the topper. This is a very elaborate and detailed topper which needs to be made about a week ahead of time. The most tricky aspect of this topper is the lid of the manhole which needs to stand upright on the cake. If it does not dry properly, it would break. A detailed pictorial on how I made this topper can be found here. Note that the base of the topper should be the same size as the top tier of the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) Next, make the city skyline with lights. These should be done at least 24 hours ahead of time. To make them, roll out black fondant and cut it into various geometrical shapes, most of which should be rectangles. Try to recreate silhouettes of buildings you know. Some of the buildings should be higher than the bottom cake tier. Next, cut out small squares out of yellow fondant and stick these to the black fondant. Allow them to dry before using.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) Now to the cake, drape your cake board with white fondant. Drape the bottom tier with blue fondant and stick it on the cake board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Drape the top tier with dark grey fondant. (TIP: I draped the bottom tier with blue fondant, then added black to the leftover blue fondant to create dark grey which I used for the top tier. This way you do not waste fondant). Place dowels in the bottom tier and stack the top tier on it. I also placed dowels in the top tier to hold the weight of the large topper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Next, roll out burnt orange fondant (or terracotta/copper fondant) and cut it into rectangles. These would be used to create the bricks on the top tier. Using a cutter and embosser, “rough up” the bricks a bit by cutting out angles, making indents and grooves on them. This would provide a more natural look to the bricks. Stick the bricks to the top tier leaving a few gaps in the brick wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Next, stick the buildings to the bottom tier to create a skyline. They should be placed randomly on the cake. I also made a moon by marbling fondant together and sticking a floral rod underneath. This was stuck to the left side of the bottom tier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) Next, stick the topper on the top tier starting with the main body of the topper and inserting the manhole lid behind it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(8) The designing of this cake was supposed to end with the above step. I however felt it was missing something and decided to write the celebrants name and age on the top tier. This was done by cutting out letters on green fondant, sticking them on orange fondant and cutting out the orange fondant to create a boarder around the green. (The same technique was used here). The reverse was done for the age. A tutorial on how I make my fondant letters without the use of molds and cutters can be found here. That’s all there is to it. Happy caking!