It was pretty straightforward: two 8" cakes, one for the base, one for everything else. Cutting out the shark head was simple enough, though fitting on the dorsal fin was pretty fiddly. The little fish are all fondant.
So this year, he had his party at a bowling alley. That didn't seem to lend itself to anything interesting thematically, so I decided to go with a rocket ship cake, something I had wanted to do for a long time:
That was a chore! I baked two big 8" cakes (white chocolate mud, the recipe from Planet Cake) and cut both into three layers. Then I cut each layer into variously sized circles--for some of the narrower, higher-up parts, I could get two or three circles per layer. I made the tail-fins by quartering one of the firmer layers, standing the quarters up on their sides, and cutting off the very top bits. I was pretty anxious that the fins might not hold up the weight of the full cake, but the whole thing went without a hitch. Actually, the hardest part was cutting and stacking the layers. I'm not very good at getting everything perfectly even, so the rocket ship leans a little bit to one side. It maybe enhances the cartoon-y effect, but I wish I could have made it stand up straight.
I don't think Christine particularly liked the red-on-red, but I'm really happy with the color scheme. I wanted something retro, like an old burgandy leather armchair had taken off into space, and I think it came off pretty well. The only thing: I wish those rivets were shiny brass instead of plain old gray. I could probably have found some metallic brass food glitter somewhere, but I'm trying to keep costs down, and, anyway, the gray isn't bad. Maybe next time...
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