Soldier Cake

A little background on this one.  I have been either dating, engaged, or married to my husband for eleven years now.  That means that his siblings are also mine, I have watched them grow into wonderful people.  I have spent many hours with them.  My brother-in-law, Alex, is an entertainer - boy would he hate me putting that in my blog :).   But it is true, he is always making others laugh!  One of my most vivid memories with him and my husband was at a family friends pool.  The two of them were slowly coming out of the water with eyes wide open like soldiers.

Fast forward a few short years later and Alex has now become a real soldier, and is currently protecting us in Kuwait.  His mom asked if I would make a cake and cupcakes for his going away party.  My first thought was an inside joke that no one else would understand and would leave everyone with a lot of questions.  My second thought was to make a cake that looks like a soldiers head emerging out of water.  The cupcakes would be camouflage with the logo of the MN National Guard (whom he serves with) made out of chocolate placed on top.  The cupcakes are coming in a following post.  Here is how I made the cake.

I obtained a manican head and covered it in plastic wrap.  I wrapped some foil around some paper towels to make the brim of the hat.  I wanted to make the hat about a week in advance so that it would dry hard and it could simply be placed on the cake last minute. 

I covered this foil and head with wax paper so that the hat would (hopefully) pull right off when it was dry.

I rolled out some fondant and placed it over the top of the wax paper, cutting and shaping as I went.  This is what I got. 

I hated it!  I stared at it for a good while trying to decide if I could make changes so that I did like it.  I decided that this was kind of the focal point of the cake, and I better be happy with it.  So, I rolled it up and made it back into a ball.  I lowered the foil/paper towel so that the hat would be a bit larger and the brim would sit lower.  I repeated the steps above to prepare the head for a second attempt.

I colored the fondant tan so that it would be easier to add color to.  I also used a bit of paper towel around the outside to help form the brim. 

It was not as smooth as I would have liked it, and the shape was still a little off, but it would have to do.

I sprayed the hat with some green Color Mist from Wilton.  This was my first time using this product.  Would I recommend it?  It would really depend on what you were using it for.  It was perfect for this project as I wasn't looking for a consistent coat of color.  I left it to dry for several days. 

Two days prior to the event, I baked a few 8" round cakes and one half of a sphere cake and 48 cupcakes.  I will post about the cupcakes soon.  The day before the event, I hauled all of my cake tools to my Mother-in-laws house to decorate.  I started by stacking and filling the cakes and then crumb coating them.  Then I made two eye balls.  A ball of white fondant, I used the wide end of a piping tip for the iris and the small end of the number 12 piping tip for the pupil.

I carved out a little space for the two eyes.  I tried to line them up as best as possible. 

I used a little more fondant to create some facial structure.

I then colored and rolled out a strip of flesh toned fondant.  I laid it gently over the face and used my fingers to help shape it a bit more.  I cut slits for the eyes and they literally opened up so I could see the eye ball.  It was a little freaky to be quite honest.  I painted a little piping gel on the eyes to make them look wet.

I designed some ears and "glued" them to the side of the head.

Eye brows and hair - most of this won't even be seen as the hat will cover it.  But I love the detail work.

Finally, the hat was placed on top.  I made some straps to go on the hat.  I had also made some weeds ahead of time by using my extruder.  I used gumpaste to hold them into place (note, many broke - I had sprayed them with the color mist right before placing them on, I think this made the gumpaste/fondant too moist to stand).  I covered the cake board in piping gel to make it look like water.

Eventually, it was time to eat.  My brother-in-law enjoyed cutting into the soldiers head...this part was a bit morbid, I guess.

The hat held up so well that my daughter even wore it for a bit.  Never mind the frosting in her hair :).