As it happened, a couple of his friends also graduated. They all have similar interests (primarily computers), so we had a little get together for them (hard to call it a party when you get a large group of introverts together) and I made a cake for them all. This is actually much more the cake that I wanted to make for Matt's birthday (well, not this fancy, but I did want to put a figure of him at a computer on his birthday cake, but wasn't able to pull it off), so I amped it up a little for his grad. I decided to mix the two primary common interests that they have: computers and D&D. Of course, I feel that there is a lot more that I could have added to the cake, but in the end I was pretty happy with it.
I started out with making and icing the cake. Then I made the computer keys. I've decided that computers need less keys and I think I will try to make that suggestion to developers for the future. Or maybe next time I'll just do an IPad. These are made of fondant (of course) and all personally shaped by me. It wasn't until I got to putting them on the cake that I realized that I had made every key, except the space bar. :|
The lid and screen were definitely a learning experience! I wanted to make a really thin screen. Most people use cardboard for this purpose. But, being me, I thought to myself, "Why do something simply in a way that is already proven to work, when you can give yourself for stress by choosing to do it the really difficult way?" So, I made my screen out of gumpaste and covered it in royal icing. It would have worked VERY well, I think, if I had been able to give it more time to dry. Too much humidity here, I guess.
As you can see, I made a Mac (ptooey, ptooey!). I just didn't feel like working with black fondant, and the idea of a black fondant covered cake was...less than appealing to me. So, I did my best to make a Macbook (ptooey! ptooey!). I even did the cute little apple for it and everything.
I would have liked to have spent a little more time on the screen, but I am not unhappy with it. This is the almost completed version. If you check with the completed cake you can play "spot the differences". I did learn that black food coloring makes a great grey initially, then turns purple overnight. Note to self: why the heck did you forget to use silver petal dust and tried to do that with black food coloring?! I also learned that I do not have a steady hand, so please don't look too closely at my painting and writing. In case you can't read the tiny writing, the google search bar reads "gaming jobs".
Here is the finished computer without the screen. This is the next generation of Macbook (ptooey, ptooey.): it has no ports on the sides and no cord. It is solar powered and completely bluetooth. Underneath you will notice the "Player's Handbook". That's the D&D part of the cake. I wanted to do a lot more with that, but don't really feel that I have the artistic abilities necessary.
The adorable! figurines came from my sister-in-law, Melissa. I conned her into making them, cause she is actually good at it and doesn't find it as horrifyingly stressful as I do (and just annoying and frustrating and *rolls eyes expressively). The blonde is Matthew, and then Abe is the one sitting down, and Craig is catching up on some sleep after finals (in the picture at the top of the post, it is L-R: Abe, Matthew, Craig). I think Melissa did a fabulous job and have decided to hire her for all future figurines! :D
Corban's colors are gold and dark blue, so I wanted to include that one the cake too. Hence the yellow and blue on the bottom layer. The side that we can't see says "Corban" and then you can just see part of the "2011" on this side.The cake was a hit and I had tons of fun making it and am pretty happy with the end results myself.
And in case you are wondering: Yes, I am very proud of him.
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