I Am Iron Man!!!

With a title like "I Am Iron Man!!!!" you'd probably imagine that this post will be about something tough and manly. Like competing in a race with multiple sporting events or saving the world from a supervillain. I suppose it depends on your definition of tough and manly, but this post is actually going to be about baking and cake design. To some that may be tough and manly, to others perhaps not.

Our church is going to be holding a fundraising bake sale next week to help the youth lessen the cost of summer camps and scout camps. Inspired by Ace of Cakes, one of our favorite shows on The Food Network, we decided to go a little further in the cake decorating department than we ever had before. We wouldn't simply slap some iced art on the top of a classic rectangular cake. No, we would carve the cake into a shape, and use fondant to decorate it (note: I had never heard of fondant before watching Ace of Cakes, Emily says she was familiar with it but never used it (if any one is as ignorant as I was about what fondant, feel free to read the brief definition found here).

Due to our rookie status in the fondant decorating department, we decided to make a version of the cake before the bake sale, so that we would know what we were doing. Also, as novices, we decided to keep it fairly simple, so that we weren' t carving King Kong or anything insanely difficult. Iron Man's mask seemed to be a nice easy first attempt at cake carving. So last week we tested out our ability to make a cake in the shape of Iron Man's mask.

Here's how it went.

Step 1) Bake a cake.

Step 2) Carve the cake.

Step 3) Ice the cake.

Step 4) Lay the first layer of fondant on the cake.

Step 5) Add the supplementary colors.

Step 6) Step back in awe of your cake decorating skillzzzz.