Crossword Puzzle Cake

The celebration, a man turns 90!  One of his favorite activities is to work on crossword puzzles.  So, I was asked to create a crossword puzzle cake.

The cake is 1/2 sheet of lemon poppy seed with lemon frosting.  I made the "paper" our of fondant ahead of time, so that I could simply set it on top when the cake was frosted and ready to go.  I used the header from the paper in the mans home town, and used the date of the party.  The crossword is filled with things he loves most.  Things like cribbage, birds, woodwork, family, friends, 13 children, etc.  He was also in the navy, so I put an anchor in the center of the puzzle with the blacked out spaces.  The crossword itself is actually drawn on a sheet of fondant with an edible marker.  The words "News-Herald" were cut out of black fondant and the teal line is cut out of fondant as well.  The rest of the heading was drawn.  I curled up one corner and added a few more pieces of fondant to make it look as if the corner of the paper had been rolled.  I placed black jelly beans around the exterior as this was another favorite of the birthday boy. 

Final touch was the pen.  It too is edible, made out of fondant.

In the box and ready to go.  This was not the only cake in this particular order.  I was also asked to design a birdhouse cake modeled after a birdhouse the birthday boy himself had made.  That will be my next post.