Marshall Amp Cake

NOTE: this isn't a typical DIY for me-- I didn't include a step-by-step because I was winging it myself half the time!  If you have any questions about creating a cake, feel free to comment or contact me, I'd be glad to give you more info or help in anyway I can!

So a couple years back, I promised my boyfriend's brother (an amazing guitar player & musician!) that I'd make him a Marshall amp cake (his middle name is also Marshall so we thought it was a good sign to go with that brand).  I had been taking some Wilton cake classes at the time and figured it would be a piece of cake (literally!).  Fast forward a few years, he's moved to Los Angeles and isn't around as much, so as soon as I heard he was coming home for a few weeks, I knew I needed to keep good on my word!  Having never such a large cake before, I found the amazing blog Jessicakes and winged the rest!  Luckily, not as much trial & error as I imagined and needless to say, I was thrilled with the final outcome considering it was my first big cake.

^^Being that their family has a total of 6 people, I knew I didn't want to have TOO much cake that would just be thrown out, so I decided to make krispie treats for the bottom speaker portion.  I used cocoa pebbles to make any rips in fondant not as noticeable (since it would be dark inside too!) and made about 6-7 batches of the treats in 9"x13" pans and stacked them up on each other.  I stuck some dowell rods in them just to be structurally safe. but looking back, I don't think it's necessary for a krispie treat base.  I then used Jessica's advice, and covered it all with chocolate ganache, which helped fill the tiny empty areas the cereal left and created a smoother finish for the fondant to go on.^^

^^For the top part, I used Jessicakes' mudcake recipe and made 3 batches of it for 3 cake layers.  This cake is INTENSE chocolate and gets denser and fudgier as the days go by.  This cake worked great, since I tried to split the cake production over a week:

 Monday: Krispie Treat Making

Tuesday: Cake Baking

Wednesday: Cake Stacking and Applying Ganache Layer

Thursday: Fondant everything

Friday: Add the Details!

^^This was the top portion.  Being that his name is "Jordan Marshall", I wanted to put his first name on top.  This was semi-difficult to do, since there is no "Marshall" font, and I tried to put something together in Photoshop.  I then cut the "Jordan" and "Marshall" out of sugar sheets (by placing my printouts over and used very fine scissors).  The trim was also cut out of the sugar sheets and the corner nail heads were some sugar pearls I had in my sprinkle stock.   The gold panel is gum paste that I cut, let dry, and then sprayed gold.  The center buttons are jellybeans that I cut off the ends (and dipped one end in gold luster dust) and stuck into the cake with a toothpick.  The smaller black buttons are 2 ends of the jelly beans and the power buttons are a cut up Sweedish Fish and some black fondant.

^^The buttom speaker was more simple, but on both layers, I laid some shelf paper on and rolled over it with my rolling pin to get some texture like the speaker area of a real amp.  All items (including the names) were attached with a tiny bit of cornsyrup unless otherwise noted.^^

^^Since the top of the cake would be getting more fudge-y, I left it on the cake board (which i trimmed in 1/2 inch from the actual cake) to make sure it wouldn't deform on the krispie treat portion.  Once each part was done, I simply slide the cake & board on top of the krispie treat speaker.  I made a handle out of a 50/50 mixture of black fondant and gumpaste, which I left to dry overnight on a rolling pin to give it a realistic curve.  Luckily, probably due to the weight of each layer, the top didn't budge once, even when traveling in the car!  Phew!^^

^^SURPRISE!  I think he liked it!^^

^^He likes it!  He really likes it!^^

^^Had to bring out a guitar that he customized to go with his amp!^^

I love that it doesn't look TOO real and still looks like a cake-- I mean who wants to eat a cake that people THINK is the real item?  The receiver loved it so much that he wouldn't let us touch/cut it for a few days, but when we finally did, the reaction (and taste!) was well worth it!

Bake anything awesome lately?  Interested in experimenting with fondant?  I want to hear about it!

xo, Elissa