Lego Pirate

The school held a Fall Festival, and folks from the community were encouraged to donate services for the silent auction. Our custom cake offering was won by a woman who requested a cake to celebrate both her 5-year-old son's and 25-year-old brother's birthdays, which both fell on the same day. When asked what interests they had in common, she replied, "Legos. Oh, and pirates." Thus was the Lego Pirate cake concieved. The legs, torso, and head are cake, whereas the arms, hands, and hat are molded rice krispy treats. We put a cardboard platform between every two layers (there are ten), but the wooden dowels inside the legs gave out sometime the night before delivery. That realization was a dark, dark time in our lives. We picked up a small PVC t-joint at a hardware store and used it to run posts through the "shoulder" and "neck" areas. The arms and head/hat were then pressed onto the exposed beams. Also, due to a last minute pre-fondant fiasco, there's kite string underneath there holding the head together. The artwork on his front midsection and hat are pieces of dyed and manipulated fondant (Tara's handiwork) glued on with water, and we used edible cake markers to draw the trademark face.

Big Toe

Mamaw and Papaw Flemings bought a knick-knack in Gatlinburg many years ago--it was a pink, porcelain foot inscribed with "I got a kick out of Tennessee!" The big toe was sticking up, just like Mamaw's always did, so it became something of a family treasure. Its oven-fresh doppelganger on display at their 50th wedding anniversary said, "Still getting a kick out of each other!" The big toe is cake, carved and fondant-ed separately; it was a pain and a half to get just right, especially pinned to the base at an angle, but the end product turned out pretty darn close to the original.