2 Year Old Birthday Tea Pot Cake

I did this cake for a friend of mine who I’ve worked with for the past 5+ years. We refer clients to each other and I help him with some of his permit drawings when he gets backed up. Well, he just referred a client to me and I was able to secure a nice sized interior design project, so I told him I’d make his daughter a tea pot cake for her birthday because a while back he had seen the tea pot I made for my daughter and loved it. So, here is the cake I made for her birthday party yesterday. I tried a new cake recipe that was great, but really dense…made for a great recipe for sculptured cakes. But, I think I’ll add a simple sugar syrup to each layer before I stack them to add some more moisture. The tea pot was vanilla cake with ganache filling and the bottom cake was vanilla cake with buttercream filling. The bottom cake had a modeling chocolate coating before I added the blanket of fondant on it. I got the modeling chocolate recipe a bit firm, so the chocolate firmed up on them and made for cutting it a bit difficult! Lesson learned #1! At least it tasted good!

Here is a picture of the tea pot after I ganache’d it, before I put the fondant on…

I got it really smooth, but there is a little “bulb” in the middle from not getting it carved just right. But, I’m still working on carving…that’s a whole new skill! I’m not a sculpter!
Another new thing I tried was using GumTex or Tylose Powder to make gumpaste. I made the pink fondant, colored it just like I wanted, then I took out a tennis ball size for the handle and spout and added some GumTex/Tylose-type powder to it. I kneaded it in and let it rest overnight wrapped up/sealed well in plastic wrap. The next day I kneaded it and began shaping it into the handle and spout and within a day of it sitting out, it hardened just like gumpaste! And, the cool thing is, they’re all the same color…the fondant and the gumpaste! So, I’ll definetly be doing that again! Here’s the only problem…Lesson Learned #2: When I was rolling out the fondant to put on the body of the tea pot, I rolled it too thin (I was distracted/playing with my kids, etc and wasn’t paying good enough attention). It was probably 1/8″ thick and should have been 1/4″ or so because I was laying it over dark ganache! It’s like putting a light colored shirt over a dark colored shirt…you’re going to see the color under a bit. But I didn’t notice that until AFTER I decorated the body of the tea pot and went to put the handle and spout on…the pinks are different colors!!!! AHHHHHHHH I thought! At midnight I ALMOST took off all the flower/vine decorations to put another pink layer of fondant on…but a half a second layer was like, UM, NAH! It was too late! But, now I am more aware of that!! Go back up and look at the first pic…you can tell the body of the tea pot is a duller shade of pink than the handle, spout and lid. Oh well, Lessons learned!

The other thing I’m going to do next time I make a tea pot is make a mold for the spout out of syrofoam and then wrap it in fondant/gumpaste. Having that whole spout gumpaste makes it really heavy and it’s hard to get the shape right. It ended up cracking a bit and just didn’t look as pretty as I had hoped. So, I think making a mold by carving some styrofoam would be better…and it wouldn’t be so heavy. Just an idea.

Other than that…it was a fun cake to make! They all enjoyed it and several people at the party told Darin they wanted me to make a cake for their kid’s parties…so, we’ll see if anything comes of it! I keep thinking my next cake is going to go flawlessly…but I have to remember I am still learning and there is a BIG learning curve! So, I’ll continue to practise and enjoy every minute of it!! Because afterall, it does make people smile…and isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?!