Rise of the Spider Queen

With a friend soon leaving to go overseas for school, my fiance's birthday party doubled as a going away party for her. Since my other half received a cake, I knew I had to make her one too. Being a Dungeons and Dragons player like myself, I knew she liked Drow (Dark elves) and their culture. What better way to show our true geekness than with a cake of the Spider Queen Lolth!

This was the first time using non-eatables with a cake and it had me worried. Since the Spider Queen is a dryder (half Drow, half spider) the drow half had to be there. With a little thinking, I took one of the doll bodies they use for the princess cakes and started to work. I replaced the hair because it was the wrong color and took to painting the body with nontoxic black paint. The body was then added to a styrofoam sphere which had two sides cut off. This too was painted black with her eyes painted white. I placed food quality cardboard on the flatted bottom and back then went on my way to replace her hair with white yarn. Knowing Lolth liked to have "pets", a chain and collar were added.

I covered the body of the spider with one piece of fondant, then went about figuring out how to piece the two halves together. With the cardboard pressed against the flattened side of the cake, I used a little fondant to secure the base. A band of fondant was placed around the bottom of the styrofoam and cardboard that was pressed against the cake, the sign of the black widow marking her back.

Decorating the spider body with Lolth's symbol was quite easy and the eatable shimmer came out perfect around the web. When my friend saw the completed cake, she was in complete awe, and took so many pictures of it. For a cake that a good portion of it wasn't eatable and something I had never done before, it came out nearly perfect.

To add a little extra, I ended up making six legs to be added during the serving of the cake.

Materials:

• Cake: Fondant, chocolate cake, buttercream frosting
• Doll: Doll body (plastic), yarn, nontoxic paint, styrofoam, food quality cardboard, jewelery chain
• Legs: Foodsafe wire, pipe cleaners

Top shot with no legs.

Top shot with legs!

Wonderful front shot of her.

Back shot of her. I loved the lighting.

"Making a note here..."

Once again, Portal made it's way into a cake for my fiance's birthday and oh boy, was it a huge success! Once finishing this little package, I felt it was incomplete, lacking a personal touch. I thought to myself, "What would GLaDoS do?" So I added a bit of blood splatter. You know? To liven it up. And with the Portal orange and blue there, the cake was perfect!

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting

Dropped off in the middle of the night... and is that... blood?

I like these test results!

"There really was a cake..."

Oh GLaDoS... you tested us, promised us cake, then said there wasn't. But there was! It was one of your little cores! No, we didn't actually toss it in the incinerator, we hid it, then ate it when you weren't looking!

Portal, being one of my fiance's favorite games, was the next game to temporary immortalize in the shape of a cake! The little red angry core was the perfect choice and was a big hit for our anniversary.

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting

Aw, it looks... harmless...

Looks like someone fell down...

And the beast was contained!

Troll Love!

When V-day came around, I promised a friend a cake, and a cake is what I made. With a little extra work, I wanted this cake to leave an impression like my World of Warcraft characters, my troll shaman. I traced the heart shaped pan and started to sketch out what I was looking for. It took a few tries but then I found what I liked. Sadly, this cake never made it to its destination so a new one is in order to be made. So here's to you Matt!

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting

Desert for Dinner!

Unable to my a dinner to my future in-laws, I instead promised to make a cake. Since it was a Christmas dinner, I figured the cake should be Christmas themed. The first thing that came to mind were candy canes. Quickly working, I made a three tiered white cake and simply painted the striped. Even though the design was simple, his family loved it. Who knew?

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting

Nothing says "I love you"....

... like a dagger to the heart. Wanting to make a little something for my fiance', I made him little heart cakes though I felt they were unfinished. Being that I have a character that is a rogue, the thought to add little dagger handles to the mini cakes came to mind, but even that wasn't enough. In World of Warcraft, rogues used poisons on their weapons to deal extra damage, so I figured, "Hey, make it look like it's poisoned!" This was tricky since the main color was pink and I'd be adding greens and brown to it to give it a sickly color.

They arrived to him unharmed and he found them not only to be tasty, but entertaining too.

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting

 

 

I'd tip my hat to that!

 A friend, once again, had a birthday coming up and I was stuck for ideas. Then it struck me. He character in World of Warcraft was usually seen wearing a Green Brewfest Hat. With a new challenge ahead, I set about crafting the feather and pin, since they are the two things that stand out. Next was working on the shape of the hat. While I couldn't get the exact shape, it was a good likeness. Next, the coloring for both the hat and the cording that wrapped around the base, I took my own liberties with it, making it a brighter green and the cord orange. The cord isn't actually a cord of fondant, instead many, MANY, flattened balls of fondant that I had simply painted orange. Once finished, I was pretty proud of myself, never making a cake of this size or detail before.

Unfortunately, the cake met its end at the hands of a clumsy postman who dropped the box that the cake was shipped in, splitting the thing in two.

Materials: Fondant, white cake, food coloring, buttercream frosting, 2 toothpicks for securing the pin to the hat, gumpaste for extra support