Topsy Turvy Nautical Shower Cake

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Instructions

Most of the work for this cake is in the planning, gathering and preparing of materials. Actually stacking and building it isn't hard. The class was excellent and made it very easy and much less intimidating. I don't think I would have tried this design without such good instruction. I would suggest being very careful when cutting the foam separators. I didn't cut the first one very well and I was worried about it supporting the weight of the two upper layers. It all worked out OK, but I'll be more careful next time. Also next time I'll use the Stress Free Support System instead of the support dowels. I wasn't sure how it would work with the center pole but I think I can figure it out now that I've built it once. I would also do a better job of whittling the center pole. I didn't make a sharp enough point and that really made a difference when I stacked it. Most of the work for this cake is in the planning, gathering and preparing of materials. Actually stacking and building it isn't hard. The class was excellent and made it very easy and much less intimidating. I don't think I would have tried this design without such good instruction. I would suggest being very careful when cutting the foam separators. I didn't cut the first one very well and ...
Read full instructions »

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Difficulty:

Category: Cake Decorating

Type of item: Food

For: Infant/Baby

Style: Cute, Whimsical

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Materials

This is a 3-tier Topsy Turvy cake for a boy's nautical-themed baby shower, inspired by Richard Ruskell's Topsy Turvy cake class. All the figures are fondant. The boats were built on a foam core base so they would be sturdy enough to support themselves. Two bears have fishing rods, which are just wooden skewers cut and painted, with black thread glued to the end. The masts are more skewers with plain paper sails. The rest is edible. I cheated and used Goldfish crackers to save myself a lot of time. The cakes are wedding cake, strawberry, and chocolate. The family loved the cake, and the soon-to-be-grandfather kept saying it couldn't possibly be real!

What was your inspiration?

Richard Ruskell's class for the basic cake design. I just love this topsy-turvy look, and I hope to use this a lot in the future for various events. It's very eye-catching and really unusual. I adore the steampunk cake shown in the class, and I"d love to experiment with changing the direction of the tiers, the angle of the foam cuts, etc. I love a challenge and the planning part of cakes, so this was a perfect project for me.

For the decoration, the parents wanted a nautical theme, and daddy is a fisherman. I love making fondant figures so sailing bears was a natural choice.

What are you most proud of?

It didn't fall over! I was very surprised by how sturdy it was. The top tier was transported separately and then stacked at the event. It survived a 45 minute car ride with no problems at all. It's very sturdy. I'm also completely in love with the bears!

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Pay attention to the class! He gives all the necessary info, measurements, etc. If you look at it as a series of steps, it's not so intimidating. And it's so worth the work - people are really impressed with this design, and I can charge a premium for it too!