Ipso Fatto Instant Photo: Josh Turns Eight

My cousin's son Josh recently turned eight and he had a Star Wars-themed birthday party. He requested a vanilla cake, which was an easy enough request to fulfill. But for the cake decorations, I needed help. Fortunately my brother Kevin happened to be visiting during the week of the party. He's a high school math teacher with exceptional artistic skills that I have envied since we were kids. Tom and I have one of Kevin's drawings framed and hanging in our dining room. And Kevin is always willing to lend a hand. So I was not surprised that when I asked him to help sculpt a Star Wars figurine out of fondant for Josh's cake, he immediately agreed.

Kevin gave a lot of thought to his sculpting project and sketched out a drawing in advance. I have a book (The Cookie Companion by Georganne Bell) that provides some very helpful color charts with formulas based on Americolor soft paste colors. So Kevin selected the colors he wanted to use and I mixed the dye formulas and kneaded the color into fondant I made. 

Kevin came up with what I think was a great-looking Yoda. I had actually intended to cover the cake with a sheet of solid colored dark bluish-purple fondant, but as I was kneading in the color I really liked the marbled pattern that formed when the dye was only partially mixed in. So I went with it and loved the result.

Recipes: "White Velvet Butter Cake," "Mousseline Buttercream" and "Classic Rolled Fondant" from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Previous Post: "Ipso Fatto Instant Photos: Josh Turns Seven," August 8, 2017.