Another Cake Wreck

A friend of mine, who knows I like to make cakes, asked me to make a Bob the Builder cake for her son's 3rd birthday. I didn't want to use fondant, because usually people don't like the way it tastes, so I considered other options for making Bob as Bob-like as I could. I worked on him for about 2 hours (that is, she baked the cakes and I made the shirt, hat brim, belt, and shoes ahead of time) and after 2 hours I stepped back, pretty pleased with my work.

Unfortunately I didn't have a precocious 8 year old to critique my work! After the party, I showed my picture to another friend's son and he declared "That doesn't look like Bob the Builder!" and he was mostly right because the worst part of making a cake to look like a popular cartoon character is that unless they look EXACTLY like the character, they really don't look like the character! But also, the main things that kept him from looking just right were his eyes and ears, which I think in hindsight I could have (and would have) fixed, if I had not been blinded by 2 hours of mixing frosting colors and bending over smoothing out bumps. I am, however, VERY pleased with how everthing from the neck down turned out.

So here he is!



My friend was torn between wanting a dirt cake and a Bob cake, so I told her I would do Bob standing in mud. I think that turned out very nicely.

His shirt is made out of orange and cherry Starburst candies and his hat brim is made of lemon Starbursts. I microwaved them (full power) for 7 seconds. The belt and shoes are made of caramels, which I also microwaved 7 seconds, but really they are pretty malleable straight from the wrapper. His ears are also made from caramels (with icing on top). The eyes are peanut M&Ms - in hindsight I think I would have just piped the eyes so they would have been thinner. Here's the picture I used as a guide:

Also when I was 98% finished, I caught their cocker spaniel taste-testing the hat! Out of instinct, I screamed "NO MAKO!" ha! I was able to cut away the bitten spot and re-ice it. I think you cannot really tell where it happened:


Happily the birthday boy was EXTREMELY pleased with the cake, especially with the toy tools that were on the belt :)