I survived a 10 year olds birthday party this past weekend. I survived said party attended by twenty-seven 10 year olds. There was a karaoke DJ, a face painter and a seriously loud sound system. Those kiddos were rockin’ out!
Of course, I made the much talked about guitar cake. I started on it on Thursday with the frosting. On Friday evening, I baked the first 2-layer sheet cake and on Saturday morning I baked the second 2-layer sheet cake. I started on Saturday morning around 8:30 am and took a 1 1/2 hour break to venture over to Party City to pick up some balloons for the Birthday Girl. (I am still convinced that the balloons were trying to eat me on the way home, ahhhhhh!)
After the cakes cooled, were frosted between layers, frosted outside and ready to cut up, I traced the cut-out the pattern with a toothpick in the frosting. Once I got the look I was going for, I hack-sawed the cake to bits and put it back together as I saw fit. (as you can see here)
Next on the menu was the harrowing fondant. DUN DUN DUN! It was fairly easy to work with (so long as you use parchment paper as your rolling surface and are liberal with your confectioners sugar for anti-sticking). I spent only a fraction of the time rolling it out, dying a small portion for the lettering, slicing up and punching out the licorice gum drops – used for the string tightening and volume knobs.
Placing the fondant was a bit daunting and it actually fell apart in the middle while I was placing it down, so I was forced to cover the guitars neck and re-roll the remaining fondant to cover the guitar itself.
Once the fondant was on snug, seamed and cut out, the cake was ready to be shimmer dusted. Woo hoo! Then the strings (licorice shoe laces were placed, M&M pick-ups were added, letters and knobs were gum-pasted on).
I spent a total of 8 hours making this cake. My back hurt something fierce from leaning over the counters, back and forth. My feet were also killing me, barefoot in a wood-floored kitchen. But, the look on my nieces face was worth every single pain in my back and feet, too.
The guests (parents and children alike) were all fairly impressed, mostly because I had never committed to such a feat before and because I had done so well for an amateur. So much so that I got a few orders from them as well.
If you would like to see more of this cake, please visit my flickr album. 
Be Sweet,
Heather
Jeesh. Impressive, my young Jedi!
That is some cake.
You owe me some cupcakes. Big fancy ones.
I think I want some with zombies or something nasty on them.
Your wish is my command. And I have some splendid ideas for cupcakes. Oh so many ideas. Did you know there is a Mt Dew cupcake? Or a Key Lime Pie? How about the Guinness & Peanut Butter? I get all excited just thinking about them!