Happy Sunday! And Happy 12th Birthday to our son Jack! We had a small family birthday party for him today and he chose a Minecraft theme. Minecraft is a computer/video game that he plays with his friends on the computer and on Xbox. 

Surprisingly enough there isn't much out there with party supplies available so the cake was a major help in the decor area of the party. I'd love to say it was simple to do but it really wasn't. I will tell you what I did do so if you do decide to try it yourself you will have some idea of what you are getting yourself in for before you actually start. 

I started with a 10x10 layer of cake that I leveled. I then cut that into four pieces and stacked them 2x2 with filling in between. Then I froze them.  When they were completely frozen I cut the levels into them with a serrated bread knife. Then I crumbcoated it all with buttercream and let it settle over night.

The next day I made all of the colors of fondant by using gel colors and white fondant. Except for the black and red which were made from Duff's fondant. I rolled the balls of fondant out on a cutting mat and then cut half inch long strips and then cut them half inch wide to make the squares. I let those dry on a mat for one hour so the fondant would firm up a bit. 

After of the squares were set I started placing them onto the cake one or two at a time trying to replicate the way the video game looks with the dark brown, light brown, black, tan and light grey squares. I have to say I used my son for reference as well along the way to make sure I was at least getting close. The last step on the cake was the "grass" area which are 2x2 inch squares. 

Finally it was time for the characters. If I were making this for a client I would need to use the plastic licensed characters so I could sell the cake. But, since this was for my son, I was able to make them from fondant.  I made the "creeper" first since I had used this character to make the invites and it was on the water bottle labels as well. Once again it was a process of working on the piece and then asking my son if I was getting close, work a bit more and tweak the design a bit until he was happy with it. Then came "Steve" which is the main character in the game. I made him section by section, put the sections together with toothpic pieces and then let it dry flat for a few hours to firm up. Then I stuck him onto the base drum with toothpics in the feet and then used toothpics to attach him standing up onto the cake. I did the exact same thing with the pigs and the TNT. I used the leftover colored fondant to make the cubes and just set them onto the one terrace. Finally I cut out a bit of the "grass" and placed the candles, securing them in with the same black icing I used for the lettering. The lettering was last. 

Now...you might ask how long it took to make this cake...7 hours. Yup. 7 hours. It is very very labor intensive and time consuming. Here is a photo of the cake table. My son and his friends were very happy with the cake and thought it was really cool and funny.

For the next two weeks I will be on vacation so I won't be posting here until I get back. When I do I'll be telling you all about a very special program I'm involved in and a Princess Cake I finished this week. See you then!

Cat