Making Memories: The Famous Boat Cake

Disclaimer: While I was very involved in the making of this cake, using my sculpting skills in the process, it was a project lead by the creative genius of Deirdre Merlino, owner of Blissfully Sweet Confections.

A year has passed since we made this cake, but what better time to share it with you the in the summer.

My husbands favorite thing in the world is his boat. So what better way to celebrate his 30th Birthday then with a cake shaped like his beautiful Hydrostream Virage. I had wanted to do a grooms cake or an engagement cake shaped like is boat for our wedding in 2009, but my personal budget was tight and I couldn't ask my parents to do it... so I tabled the idea. So I was excited about the idea of having a cake shaped like his boat for his 30th Birthday! But it was still way over my budget to have the cake made, and my cake design skills (while improving) are limited. I still haven't even learned fondant and I knew that I would never be able to create it with buttercream. So I spoke to my friend Deirdre (Blissfully Sweet Confections.) While Deirdre is a brilliant cake designer, she had never taken on a sculpted cake before. Luckily I took sculpting class in college. So between my sculpting background, her cake skills and some research, we were able to work together and make this amazing cake.

It all started with the cake. I found a dense butter cake recipe online. (I can't for the life of my find the recipe now.) You need a dense cake to be able to really sculpt it. I made 4 sheet cakes at home. 3 for stacking and 1 for the extra pieces. I wrapped them up and brought them to Deirdre's house where she had already made the chocolate buttercream icing we were going to use to fill the cake. She also made plane buttercream icing for the outside of the cake because this would be easier with the white fondant over it. We laid out the 2 bottom layers and filled them with the chocolate buttercream, but used white buttercream on the edges of each layer. Then we cut the 3rd layer off a bit and laid it on the top.

Then came the part we were most worried about, cutting the actual cake into a boat, because we knew once we made a cut, we were stuck with it. It would be hard to piece it back together. We had asked Jason's friend to take the measurements of the boat. We also measured the boat in the pictures we had. Then using ratios (I have never put ratios to such good use) we figured out how the measurements transferred onto the scale size of the cake. Deirdre made the first cut, but both of us took the knife into our hands a little bit, cutting where we felt comfortable. When it was all cut, it really did look like a boat and we were super proud. But we still only had the shell of a cake and had a lot of work left ahead of us.

When it was all cut we covered it in vanilla buttercream icing, called the crumb coat and left it in her fridge to set while we went to get pizza.

After the crumb coat had set it was time to use the fondant. Not having any experience in fondant I followed Deirdre's lead no this. We used a full white piece of fondant to cover the boat base. Then we had to really pat it down flat so that you could see all the curves and lines we carefully put on the boat, especially the shape on the bow. Then we took a long strip of black fondant which we had to carefully cut into a slight V shape and then add to the boat as the windshield. The next step was to add the details on the front. This was really hard and involved individually cutting each piece. I started with cutting the yellow piece and then used it as a template as I did each of the outer pieces.

Then next step was adding the side markings. This was where we had to take some liberties on the cake version. The actual boat has almost a wing on it and is not really flat on the side. But that was impossible to do on a cake, so we had to just add the colors to give it the resemblance of his boat. We added the pieces as stripes on the side.

Then came all the interior details. Deirdre had already created most of these using gum paste or fondant. She made them days in advance giving them time to harden. All we had to do is use edible paint markers to add the detail.

To secure these pieces to the boat we used toothpicks or in some cases icing.

All that was left to do was add the motor and the water. The water Deirdre created the next morning and then the motor she attached on site (at my parents house.) Then the beautiful cake was done.