Barefoot Summer Cake

BAREFOOT SUMMER CAKE

 

Here is a fun cake I designed this weekend to help promote author Denise Hunter's new book (available in June) after she so graciously gave me an Advanced Reader's Copy last month. The book is fantastic, perfect for reading anywhere, but would make a great vacation read. Since the beach is a perfect place to read a good book, it was my inspiration for his design. (See my author blog at www.candicesuepatterson.blogspot.com for a book review of Barefoot Summer by Denise Hunter.)


Here are step-by-step instructions on how to replicate this cake, great for a summer gathering or book club get-together!


I started with a boxed cake mix from the grocery store that I baked and let cool completely. Next, I mixed half a container of chocolate fudge frosting with half a container of vanilla frosting to make a light brown--the base for the sand. Then I added blue Wilton food coloring gel to the remaining vanilla frosting, stirring just enough to create a mixture of blues and still leaving some white. Using a spatula, I spread the chocolate frosting first on the bottom half of the cake and corresponding sides, smoothing evenly. With another spatula, I spread the blue frosting on, in a messy manner, making peaks and dips to give the appearance of waves. A mixture of ground graham crackers and brown sugar created sand that I spread over the chocolate frosting.


Next, I got to play around with gumpaste, which is my favorite part of decorating a cake!

Flattening a half-dollar size amount of gumpaste, I scored the shape of a flip-flop using the a knife then cut it out when it reached my satisfaction. I placed it on an empty spot of gumpaste and cut around it to make the next flip-flop uniform to the other. Then using very thin strips of gumpaste, I molded the straps of the flip-flops and pieced them together.

With more gumpaste, I rolled out a very thin (almost transparent) strip to mold into a beach towel.

 

Then I created the book by forming a thick square of gumpaste and scoring the middle deeply so it would bend. A thin layer of gumpaste attached to the bent square created the book cover. I scored the middle to create the spine of the book.

I also created a sailboat sculpting gumpaste into the correct shape and rolling gumpaste thin enough to be used a sail, which I poked through a toothpick. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the boat in progress.)

After the gumpaste dried hard, I painted the items using various colors of Wilton food coloring gels.
When the items were dry, I placed them on the cake how I wanted them to be.


Here are some close-ups of the details:

Gumpaste flip-flops

Any one of Denise's great books!

All put together

Sailboat

Hope you enjoy!
Don't forget to visit my author blog at www.candicesuepatterson.blogspot.com and Denise Hunter's website at www.denisehunterbooks.com.