I have to make a tardis (Dr. Who for those of you that don't watch the show) cake for our oldest GD's birthday in about a month. I've been looking at various cakes and it seems either it's stacked cake or rice crispy sculpture. We have to travel 150 miles with it. If I use stacked cake, I'll have to dowel it, as I'm afraid it will vibrate apart.
Most of the cakes also use fondant and/or modeling chocolate for the outside layer, whether it's cake or rice crispies. I'd rather not have to go that route but I'm also afraid of the icing sliding down that much of a vertical cake if I go stacked cake for just a tardis. If I do the rice crispy route, I'll make a smaller tardis and use a layer cake for a base and probably try to create some type of vortex looking effect for the tardis to sit on at an angle. There was 1 cake that had a really pretty marble-looking vortex effect using various colors of luster dust.
I'm hoping that there's somebody that has worked with rice crispies and can tell me how far ahead I can make that, especially if I end up having to use fondant or modeling chocolate.
Also, if you have any ideas about frosting that is a bit more stable than the regular decorating icing using shortening, margarine (or butter), 10x sugar, etc. One of the videos I watched said something about "mock" buttercream but the recipe I found for that is basically the same as the one above, just with the addition of dry coffee creamer and I can't see how that would really make a difference. Anybody ever used it?
The Loki cake (round layers) I made last week traveled pretty well, except for 1 spot where the top outer edge shells kind of drooped down, along with a bit of an icing slump, which I was able to push back up fortunately. They were big shells and heavy as far as icing goes. But, that's why I'm worried about an icing slump on a tardis.
Most of the cakes also use fondant and/or modeling chocolate for the outside layer, whether it's cake or rice crispies. I'd rather not have to go that route but I'm also afraid of the icing sliding down that much of a vertical cake if I go stacked cake for just a tardis. If I do the rice crispy route, I'll make a smaller tardis and use a layer cake for a base and probably try to create some type of vortex looking effect for the tardis to sit on at an angle. There was 1 cake that had a really pretty marble-looking vortex effect using various colors of luster dust.
I'm hoping that there's somebody that has worked with rice crispies and can tell me how far ahead I can make that, especially if I end up having to use fondant or modeling chocolate.
Also, if you have any ideas about frosting that is a bit more stable than the regular decorating icing using shortening, margarine (or butter), 10x sugar, etc. One of the videos I watched said something about "mock" buttercream but the recipe I found for that is basically the same as the one above, just with the addition of dry coffee creamer and I can't see how that would really make a difference. Anybody ever used it?
The Loki cake (round layers) I made last week traveled pretty well, except for 1 spot where the top outer edge shells kind of drooped down, along with a bit of an icing slump, which I was able to push back up fortunately. They were big shells and heavy as far as icing goes. But, that's why I'm worried about an icing slump on a tardis.