I made the nose four times, the upper lip and mouth creases double that and I’m still not happy with the eyes…but at least it’s finished. I was planning on making a cute little cake for my son’s first birthday- perhaps his favorite lovey or the car he likes to play in but then I saw a photo on my friend, Sachiko’s instagram feed from mimicafeunion.

I told my husband I wanted to challenge myself. He looked back at me wide-eyed and in silence; I can only imagine what he was thinking, most likely, “Oh, no” or “Here she goes again, shirking household and child-rearing duties on me.”

I had never sculpted a human head before and I thought this was the perfect opportunity…since I was the client. I have sculpted many animals in my time: dogs (check), cats (check), dinosaurs, monsters, even an alien, shark and fish (check,check,check,check,and yes, check)- but never a human. Plus I thought it would be fun to look at my cute baby boy all day.

So I plopped him down in my studio and asked him to turn to the side so I could snap his profile, luckily he cooperated :-). I also took a photo of him in the position I wanted for the cake and blew it up based on the size (and amount of cake) I needed.

 


This cake took lots of planning. Aside from just the size and amount of cake to make- I needed to make a base for the bottom of the cake, a middle support board, a board for the bottom of the head and cut holes through ALL the boards AND cake. I cut a hole through everything because I  glued a dowel through the cake drum to hold all the cake together (in addition to internal support dowels)

Once the cakes were all doweled, sculpted, crumb-coated and finally iced with buttercream I was ready to start on the head. I will admit this part WAS VERY EERIE.

After carving the head, I decided it was going to be too heavy. I had enough cake to feed my guests (I baked a red velvet cake too because it was my cousin’s birthday and that’s his favorite!) so I opted to make the head out of styrofoam (I find rice krispie treats too heavy). I covered the head and made all the features out of fondarific’s sculpting chocolate and thank goodness for innovative sugar works, sugar shapers…not sure how I would have done it without them. I also love my small ball tool and veining tool.

 

I covered the body with a combination of Satin Ice’s Chocolate fondant and Fondarific’s sculpting chocolate. Then I THREADED the cake through the dowel and attached the cake to the board covered in pale blue fondant.

 

Once I got the head pretty close to the shape I wanted then I attached everything together, the head was also threaded on dowel.

 

After a snow storm, a couple of sleepless nights, I finished the cake ONE HOUR before the guests arrived. And luckily for me, my awesome cousin, Jordan Pique arrived just in time to take professional photos.

 


I used this extruder to “embroider” his name onto the cake with Satin Ice’s pre-dyed gum paste

On this detail shot you can see the texture I created on the “spots” with my Marvelous Molds impression mat and the zipper painted with gold dust and vodka.

My poor baby boy didn’t know what to make of the cake!