Congrats Jess! - The Blow Dryer Cake

My daughter, Jessica, (the "middle" child, poor baby!) graduated cosmetology school today and I have to say I'm pretty proud of her. Not because she's followed in her mamma's footsteps, but because she's seemed to have found her own "niche". She has a natural talent as well as a great fashion sense, I have no doubt she'll be successful in this field. Yay Jess- Way to go!

Ok, I'll stop bragging...on to the cake....I made most of the "do-dads" (comb, scissors, black nozzle, back dryer vent, plug connection w/loop, plug, and clippies) a week ahead of time with gumpaste (some fondant). They were allowed to dry and then airbrushed. The sheet cake is an 18x13 chocolate cake with white butter cream then airbrushed on the corners and sides. I wasn't feeling well the day of cake construction so I'm afraid my "butter cream work" wasn't up to par. So I just plopped some pink flowers around the sides and base and called it a day. Lesson 1: crap hides crap.

For the blow dryer; Days before I had attempted to bake 2 coffee cups of white cake (making up the body) and two soup cans (one for the handle, one for the nozzle). Now, I've baked cake in coffee mugs and cans before, but the cake gods weren't with me that day. My husband walked in and said it looked like a chemistry lab experiment had gone horribly wrong. (get the picture?) So I re-grouped and decided to use 2 - 4x9 loaf pans. One for the body and nozzle and one for the handle. Lesson 2: bake your cakes before cake assembly day.

On assembly day, I carved the body and nozzle out of one of the loaf cakes. Cool, so far so good. Then things took a turn for the worse and while working on the crumb coat for the handle, it literally fell apart on me. Not willing to go down without a fight, I frantically made Rice Krispy treats and behold, a new handle was born. Lesson 3: shit happens. deal with it.

I had assembled the blow dryer on a cake cardboard (pre-cutout) then covered it with fondant. Next, I dry fitted the back vent and black nozzle, then I airbrushed black around the base and for low lighting defining the parts of the dryer. I finished it off with airbrushing silver all over. When it was almost dry, I attached the gumpaste back vent and front black nozzle.

The scissors were modeled after my own pair of shears. I had traced the two pieces (sides) and made a pattern out of each separately, then after days of drying and after painting, I stuck them together with a bit of "fondant glue", which is fondant mixed with water to form a paste. The comb is two pieces of gumpaste with spaghetti sandwiched in between for the teeth. When I placed them on the cake, I used the comb to prop up the one (higher) blade of the shears so it wouldn't fall and crack.

The button and switch on the dryer were made the day of construction with soft fondant. They're a bit bigger (bulkier?) than I planned, but at this point, I was soooo ready to be done and the end was near! Then I stuck into the dryer the end of the cord connection/loop which was made days before. The cord and name writing I did the day of cake assembly out of fresh fondant. After writing the name, I squished (yes, that's a professional term HA!) the other end into the plug. To finish it off I scattered the clippies about.

Well, OK, they were strategically placed where needed. Remember lesson 1? I wrote the "congrats" in leftover butter cream and used a wet flat brush to smear it, giving the appearance of it being blown by the dryer. Which, btw, happened to be the very best part of my plan, because, once I got to that point I was seriously feeling bad and way too shaky to have written it smoothly. {sigh, hand to forehead, the sacrifices a mother makes}LOL

So now what everyone wants to know...how long did it take? One day for cake baking and fondant making. 1/2 day to make the "do-dads" (although I had to wait a few days then airbrush) and one (whole, very long) day for cake assembly.
Smiles and hugs from my baby girl....worth every minute!

P.S...I seriously need a haircut and color, hint hint Jessica ;),
luv mom.