Electric Guitar Cake {Flashback}

Last year, my nephew turned 15. He was really getting into playing guitar and was getting a new electric guitar for his birthday. Of course since he was evolving into a little metal head,  it couldn't be just any guitar. It had to be this crazy looking thing...

I mean seriously...you could poke an eye out or something with this scary thing! But, then I got the equally crazy idea of making him a cake to look just like his new guitar. I had never done anything like this before and decided to just GO FOR IT!

It was ALOT of work, about 16 hours total and a good chunk of it because I had never made a cake like this. Here's a little peek at how it all came together.

First, I knew I needed a template because I wanted the cake to be as realistic as possible. I was too embarrassed to do it myself, so I sent my honey down to the guitar store with a sheet of foam board in hand. He found the guitar, set it down on the ground and traced the template for me. The guys in the store thought it was cool that his wife was making a guitar cake. I, on the other hand, would have felt like a complete idiot. But my husband is cool like that :)

My nephew requested carrot cake...which is super moist and kind of a difficult cake to carve...but I would not be deterred! If carrot cake is wanted he wanted, carrot cake he would get!

I put my cakes onto the template and cut away the shape. Of course my template was larger than my cake, so I made two cakes and had to piece some parts together. Thank goodness for frosting!

The guitar neck and head stock (I learned all these great terms when researching this cake) were made out of rice crispy treats. Cake as an art medium has its limitations, so cake artists use cereal treats for parts of some of those super cool shaped cakes you've seen on tv! I chose the cereal because I wanted the guitar neck to be offset and elevated...the way an actual guitar is. I never was able to achieve it...but a lesson learned for a future cake.

I had never covered a cake this shape in fondant before. It was challenging and I learned that you really should have more fondant than you need in order to be able to roll it out large enough. I had to piece it together which left an unattractive seam.

 Doesn't it look like a turkey carcass about now??? 

My husband came to the rescue again and suggested I create the name banner to cover it up!

Oh and can I tell you how much I loved this cake board???? It was a piece of plywood covered in WRAPPING PAPER! I happened to come across this metal grate looking wrapping paper at Target of all places. I covered the board with it, then covered the wrapping paper with clear contact paper! I loved how cool it looked! HEAVY METAL...hee hee ;)

The only non-edible parts of this cake were the guitar strings. I wanted them to look realistic and ended up using sewing thread wrapped around toothpicks inserted into the cake. It was truly a last minute "Hail Mary" move that ended up working perfectly!

My nephew was most definitely surprised and thrilled with his cake!

This weekend we will be celebrating his 16th birthday!!! I know that there is no way I can top the guitar cake. But hopefully the fun & cool cake I'm working on this week will still be a hit. I'll be sharing that cake this weekend! Stay tuned...