DIY : Marshmallow Cobweb Cake
October 19th, 2012 by Carrie Sellman | 50 Comments

We’ve come to the end of our new cake series, EEEK It’s Halloween Week!  A week full of innovative Halloween cakes, like none we had seen before.  A huge thank you to the the five bakeries who participated in this special week of Halloween inspiration!  Each is immensely talented and created such incredible designs.  I am thrilled to have featured them all!  If you missed any of them, you can find them all HERE.

So now that we’re officially in the Halloween spirit and inspired to bake, here is a super easy DIY for you to try at home.  There’s no piping, no painting and no wrong way to do it!  You just need marshmallows, two hands and some imagination!  It’s a creepy, crawly Marshmallow Cobweb Cake!  And I have a simple tutorial to show you how to do it!

You know how marshmallows get stringy when melted?  Well that makes for super sticky, super easy spiderweb!

I think this cake would be a fun project, no matter your experience or skill level.  If you’re a medium to advanced baker, this cake will seem super easy and you’ll be finished in no time flat.  Beginners…. your end result will look more challenging than it actually was.  Bonus for you!  And you certainly don’t have to tell anyone how easy it was.  And if you really just don’t bake at all, why not try out the marshmallow technique on a plain white cake from the market.  It could be a fun way to get your hands a little sticky and surprise everyone, including yourself.  There’s really no right or wrong way for a spiderweb to look… so just go for it!

MARSHMALLOW COBWEB CAKE
a DIY by Carrie Sellman

Supplies

  • Cake
  • White Fondant
  • Marshmallows (8 oz)

STEP 1 : Cover your cake(s) in white fondant.

STEP 2 : Place marshmallows into a microwave-safe bowl.  Heat for 30 seconds.

STEP 3 : Stir marshmallows.  {Warning.  Hot marshmallows will burn.  And it hurts!}

STEP 4 : Keep stirring.

STEP 5 : Stir, stir, stir some more!  Stir until marshmallows are cool enough to touch.

STEP 6 :  This is where it gets messy.  Or fun, depending on how you look at things.  Using both hands, stretch a small glob of marshmallow out into a long, thin, stringy strand.  Way, way longer and thinner than what is shown above (it was hard to get a picture of this exactly… especially with marshmallow covered hands).

STEP 7 :  Start wrapping the stringy marshmallow around your cake.  Go up, down, around and around.  Diagonal.  Every which way.  There is no right or wrong way for a spider web to look.  Just start wrapping.  Go light at first until you get the hang of it.  Less is more!  And thinner strands look better in the end.

STEP 8 :  Continue to pull, stretch and drape marshmallow strings.  Going every direction way you possibly can.

STEP 9:   Cover second tier in marshmallow strings.  Stack both tiers together.

STEP 10 : Add additional marshmallow strings to both tiers, draping some from one tier to the next.  Add a spider with long, spindly legs.  And you’re done!

BAKERS NOTE : I should have taken pictures while making the spider.  My bad.  But he’s made of fondant and very straightforward.  One oval for his body.  A smaller circle for his head.  And eight very long, exaggerated legs to make him extra creepy!  Hey, a big spider had to be responsible for such a crazy cobweb!

ADDITIONAL NOTE :  I realize I could have written this tutorial with much fewer steps.  But I was having fun with sticky marshmallows and my new chalkboard backdrop!  What to do you think?  Do you like it?  Want to see more of it in future posts?

I hope you’ve enjoyed Halloween Week here on the blog!  And I hope you give my creepy, crawly Marshmallow Cobweb Cake a try!  I think even the kiddos would enjoy this tutorial.  Just make sure the marshmallow is cool enough for them to handle safely and be prepared to clean up some sticky hands.  And faces.  And tables.  You get the idea!

Happy Weekend!

Carrie Sellman Carrie Sellman is the Founder & Editor of The Cake Blog. Her work has been published in BRIDES Magazine, The Bride and Bloom, on DIYnetwork.com, TLC’s Parentables and more. Read more about Carrie on her bio page.
Halloween Week : Vintage Goth
October 19th, 2012 by Carrie Sellman | 7 Comments

Today is the final day of our new cake series, EEEK It’s Halloween Week!  Five talented bakers were asked to create new designs inspired by Halloween.  To bring the spirit of the holiday to life in a modern cake design like none we had seen before.  Each baker was given a basic black and white color scheme and a specific genre, creating a week of inspiring cakes for everyone.  We’ve seen everything from whimsical to couture….  but it is Halloween Week after all.  So today we have something a little darker.  It’s time for the Vintage Goth category!

This fifth Halloween cake comes to us from Erin Gardner, owner of Wild Orchid Baking Company in North Hampton, NH.  You may remember Erin from previous features on our site (like her rainbow cake and her vintage bunting cake).  Erin has a talent for transforming trends into sophisticated cake designs and today’s feature is yet another great example of this skill.  Erin’s design is delightfully dark and transcends us into a scene of tall candelabras, wax-dripping candles and heavy black curtains.  A world where black orchids, black petunias and inky fingers are the flowers of choice.  Where graveyard-inspired iron fencing is covered in cobwebs and a menacing skull is on display.  Erin’s cake is a fabulous cross between beautiful and foreboding, creepy and cool.  Refined yet frightful, it’s a Vintage Goth Halloween Cake!

EEEK!  Can you believe this cake?  I’ve been looking at it for days now and I’m still in awe!  How can something so dark be so sophisticated?  It’s quite possibly the most elegant cake to include a skull, ever!  And the sugar flowers are insanely gorgeous with their black and grey tones, intensified with deep shades of purple.  It’s eerie and spooky and down right spectacular!  Let’s get a better look, shall we?

Erin of Wild Orchid Baking Company gives us the scoop on her design:

“My inspiration was a super chic goth Halloween ball.  I imagined a big Edwardian ballroom, black gowns and drippy candles.  The black curtain inspired base tier opens up to reveal an antiqued stone finish.  On the second tier are details mimicking a wrought iron fence.  I wanted to bring in the elements of a grave yard (head stones, fences), without being too literal.  On the top is a skull cake wrapped in black sugar flowers.  I’ve been dying (ha ha) to do black sugar flowers!  For this cake I researched actual “black” flowers and foliage that can be found in nature.  I created black orchids, black petunias, inky fingers (the black centered leaved one – love the name!) and ivy.”

Erin was going for gothic chic and she certainly nailed it!  This cake is so crazy cool!  It’s dark and eerie and simply captivating.  Can’t you just imagine a fabulous, adult-friendly Halloween bash with this cake as the centerpiece?  It would be frightfully a-ma-zing, just like this cake!

Thank you, thank you to Erin of Wild Orchid Baking Company for creating this spectacular Vintage Goth Halloween Cake for us!  And to Mark Davidson for the gorgeous photography!

Oh, and if you’re keeping track of promises…. yes, there is still a new DIY headed your way.  Coming to the blog later today!!  Happy Friday!

VENDORS & CREDITS:
Cake:  Wild Orchid Baking Company
Photography: Mark Davidson Photography

Halloween Week : Whimsical
October 18th, 2012 by Carrie Sellman | 5 Comments

Today is day four in our new cake series, EEEK It’s Halloween Week!  Five talented bakers were asked to create new designs inspired by Halloween.  To bring the spirit of the holiday to life in a modern cake design like none we had seen before.  Each baker was given a basic black and white color scheme and a specific genre, creating a week of inspiring cakes for everyone.  And today is we’re moving on to the Whimsical category.

This third Halloween cake comes to us from Yeni Monroy and her team at Dream Day Cakes®, located in Gainesville, Florida.  You probably remember Yeni from previous features on our site (like this Thing 1 & Thing 2 cake or this robot cake).  Her cakes are the perfect combination of precision and whimsy, creating magical designs with incredible attention to detail.  Yeni once again brings her signature style to the blog with an enchanting design capturing the playful side of Halloween.  Prepare to oooohh and aaaahh over this Bear-y Whimsical Halloween Cake!

Oh my goodness!  Where do we start?  Ridiculous cuteness from bottom to top!   A 3D pumpkin base is topped with topsy-turvy tiers of black and white.  Surrounded by the most loveable bears, dressed in costume and wearing big smiles.  They are so ready for some Halloween cake!  Spooky bats fly in the moonlight as the itsy-bitsy spider happily descends from a fanciful witch hat!  This cake simply cheers… Happy Halloween!

Fred from Dream Day Cakes shares the scoop on this design:

“The cake features 4 trick-or-treating bears dressed as a skeleton, mummy, vampire, and ghost.  Scrolls and topsy-turvy tiers keeps this cake whimsical and kids will immediately recognize the bears as wearing costumes. In showing that Halloween can be more fun than scary, even the spider (on the witch’s hat) is all smiles.”

This cake may include a vampire, skeleton, mummy and ghost… but it’s all fun, no fright!  The darling trick-or-treating bears are captivating for children of all ages.  You just can’t help but smile!  And who knew a spider could be so inviting and happy?!

Not only was this cake created to inspire you, but it was served at a very special event.  Fred from Dream Day Cakes tell us more :

“The cake was served to attendees of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Kickoff to a Cure event held at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. More than $70k was raised for this foundation– we were truly honored to be a part of it.

We kept the black & white theme throughout the inside of the cake with our accent color of orange– trying to have fun with it. For example, the pumpkin tier was an almond cake with layers of pumpkin spice buttercream.  We also had a tier of chocolate cake with cookies & cream buttercream (with orange jimmies), as well as vanilla cake with chocolate and funfetti buttercream.”

A Halloween cake full of creativity, charm and whimsy… that also supported a good cause?  Just one more reason to love this cake!  As if all of the amazing details weren’t enough.  We didn’t even talk about the ingenious use of chevron or the gorgeous hand-cut Halloween lettering….!   What a delightful combination of genuine Halloween fun!

A huge thanks to Yeni and Fred at Dream Day Cakes® for sharing this Bear-y Whimsical Halloween Cake with us today!

VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake : Dream Day Cakes®

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