Zachary absolutely LOVE's Mo Willem's
Elephant and Piggie books. So when it was time to get a birthday cake planned, I immediately thought Zach would love them on his cake. I Googled to see if anyone had made one and documented it online and there weren't too many things to choose from. Most were just a cake with a little fondant Elephant and Pig on top. So, for the first time I started from scratch and here is how it went:
I took two of the pictures in "We Are In a Book" because I liked Piggie in one and Gerald in the other and after tracing it, blew it up so that Gerald's head was the size of a 9 inch round pan.
Next, I copied my pattern and cut out all the "extra" pieces I would need to build Piggie into Gerald and Gerald's ears and trunk that extended past his round face.
I lined up the pieces to make sure that they were right and cut them out of the non-egg or milk cake so my nephew with allergies can eat Gerald's ear. Meanwhile, Stacey mixed up the gray and the pink so we had the frosting ready to go.
It was tricky keeping the pink and the gray separate where the two met, but after some intricate spreading, I was pleased. I outlined Piggie's nose and prepared for faces - little bit nervous about that!
Notice, Piggie's face is blank again? Well, I got all of it lined in with a toothpick and stood back and felt it wasn't quite right. A little overwhelmed, I moved to Gerald's face which went much better. Built up a little confidence and kept on with the frosting. I only had about 3/4 of a tube of black detail frosting which I had decided to use instead of trying to mix black which never quite gets black for me. I was starting to get worried I would run out. I hate having to go to the store when I am in the middle of a project!
Regaining my confidence, I charged through and rather than trying to mix a lighter pink for Piggie's snout I decided to use white and call it good. Pulls it together with Gerald's eyes too. Phew!
TA - DA!
I am so excited with the results! I know that Zachary will love it. It turned out exactly like I saw it in my head. I have to thank Mo Willems for such great characters. We love them! Maybe his next book could be called "We Are On a Cake!"
That is so cute. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the cute cake you made. We are using it for my daughter's 4th birthday that is tomorrow. My son is good at drawing, so he looked at what you had and drew it out on a paper bag and he cut the cake and he's going to do the frosting too. We have piggie done and I made the gray frosting for elephant. My daughter even found games for elephant and piggie that they are going to play. We love the books too. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a printable for the outline?
ReplyDeleteNo, I am sorry, I just traced the outline on the page of the book and enlarged it on the printer until the faces were about the size of my round cake pan.
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