Mad Hatter Hat Cake #2

My 2nd Mad Hatter Hat Cake.  The 1st one was for my niece, this one was for her best friend.  A lot of improvements made from the 1st one; One of the many benefits from making the same cake again - learning what to do better the next time around!

I baked 3, 6" round cakes (each layer was 2" tall) with 5 layers of Strawberry Buttercream filling: Chocolate - Vanilla - Strawberry Sour Cream Cakes.

Here are the 3 cakes stacked.  Through the insanity of working on 2 different cakes at the same time, I did an ganache dam then filled the layers with strawberry buttercream.  NOTE!  Don't do a dam when you will be carving the cake!  It made it very messy and very difficult to cut nice, smooth sides with.  Work on a frozen or at least a very well chilled cake - makes it easier to carve.  The hat is sitting upside down here with a 4.5" circle that will become the bottom base and used as a guide to carve the cake to.

 

Next, cover the cake with ganache and make the hat's rim.  I rolled out a 9" round circle and lay it over a 9" board that was heavily dusted with corn starch to keep it from sticking.  I then cutout a 4.5" round out of the middle for the base of the cake to sit in.  Brushed the entire rim with chocolate ganache then let it sit overnight in the fridge to firm up with some balls of foil in various spots around the rim to give it some dimension.
Tip:  Using the same size board as the rim helped keep the hat's rim perfectly round and not get twisted or stretched out of shape.

Once the ganache was set and dry, I used the same technique as on the previous cake by using a ball tool to swirl the pattern all over the hat.  Used piping gel to attach the rim to the cake board then placed the cake over that.  The cake was very tall (7") and not very stable so I hammered a dowel right down the center and into the cake board (you can see the cake bulging at the bottom).  I rolled a piece of modeling chocolate and wrapped it around the bottom (around 1/2" tall and 1/4" thick) to give it some extra support.

Making the board was tedious but well worth it.  I was trying to come up with something in the movie and fell in love with the checkered board and had always wanted to make one.  I used a diamond impression mat to cut out the squares and then patched up the pattern directly on the cake board.  Another reason to use a diamond impression mat and to also get perfectly uniform and perfect squares....worked like a charm!

The entire hat and rim was dusted with patches of Dark Chocolate Brown Petal Dust and Avocado Luster Dust.  The little trinkets were dusted with gold, pink, and white pearl dust and the modeling chocolate ribbon was dusted in pink pearl dust and painted with white gel colors.  The stick holding the date is a skewer while the other 2 sticks (black and white) were dried pieces of spaghetti painted with gel colors.  The feather was made out of fondant and dusted in various colors.

I used the Alice In Wonderland font for the name and age.  And made 2 dozen assorted "Eat Me" Petits Fours to go with the Hat Cake.

The "Eat Me" Petits Fours were cut from a Vanilla Sour Cream Cake baked in 10" square pan = 24 pieces each 2.25"L x 1.5"W x 1.75"H.  They were filled with Strawberry Buttercream then covered in MMF.  Royal Icing was used to pipe the white swirls and "Eat Me".

My other Mad Hatter Hat Cakes:

my first Mad Hatter Cake

My third Mad Hatter Cake

Barney and Friends Cake (and Modeling Chocolate & RKT Recipes)

A Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop cake for little Evan who turned 1 and it turned out so adorable.  Evan loves Barney and although I find him (Barney) quite annoying, after playing a couple episodes to get an idea of what the dinosaurs looked like in detail, my own 3 year old loves him too and requests to watch it EVERY day...oh well!  He does have very catchy songs and the kids love singing along.

The figures were modeled with Rice Krispy Treats (RKT) cereal then covered and molded with modeling chocolate.  I made the RKT without butter and used a little bit of vegetable oil instead:  Using butter will make them go stale quick.  I started these guys 3 days earlier.


Below is the recipe I used for the RKT.  Measurements are approximate since I basically eyed it until I got the right texture.
 
RKT Recipe (with vegetable oil):
16oz Bag of Mini Marshmallows
12 Cups Rice Crispy Cereal (I crushed it a little bit)
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Water


Coat a microwave bowl really well with shortening or vegetable oil.  Add marshmallows, drizzle with water and microwave in 30 sec increments, stirring in between, until all melted.  Add veg oil and stir well.  Add cereal and stir again until incorporated well.  Cover in an airtight container so it stays soft while you make your figures.  If it hardens, just put the amount needed into the microwave for 5 secs to soften it back up again.

This batch was enough to make the 3 dinosaurs, number 1 and a 6" round (4 inches tall)...I had about a cup left over.

Cover the RKT in modeling chocolate.  I used white candy melts and tinted them with a combination of Chef Master Candy Colors and AmeriColor Gel colors.  Instead of using toothpicks, I use dry spaghetti as skewers to help hold each piece to the body.  I let these sit overnight to set and dry before assembling them although you can assembly them right away when using modeling chocolate.

Modeling Chocolate Recipe:
(I prefer to weigh my ingredients, much easier and less clean up)
14oz bag of candy melts or chocolate, melted in the microwave in 30 secs increments, stirring each time, once all melted, add 4oz (weighed) light corn syrup (or 2.6oz measured), stir very little, spread over a piece of wax paper and let sit overnight to set.  When ready to use, break off a small piece and knead until soft again.  Use as is or knead some coloring into it.

The basic recipe is 16oz chocolate to 3oz (measured) corn syrup (4.5oz weighed).  Candy Melts usually come in a 14oz bag, so use a little less corn syrup.  Using more corn syrup will make the modeling chocolate softer, using less, will make the modeling  chocolate harder.

Update March 2011:  see step by step photo's on this post, How to Make Modeling Chocolate

Here are the dinosaurs all decorated and waiting patiently to get on the cake.

For BJ (yellow dino), I stuck his shoes into the sides of the cake, spread piping gel over the tops, then lay his knees over it.  All the the dino's are attached to the cake with piping gel.

They look so adorably happy...and cute =)

The top, 6" tier is actually a RKT rather than a cake.  I just filled 2, 6" round pans with the RKT, let it cool, then covered in buttercream and MMF like you do a normal cake layer.

The bottom, 9" tier is Chocolate Chiffon filled with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberries.