Remember when I made those toy soldier cupcakes? Well I also agreed to make a tank cake for my friend Karen's wedding rehearal dinner. I have made thousands of cupcakes, but the number of cakes that I have baked I could count on my fingers. It didn't seem like it could possibly be THAT hard to make a tank cake. To make things a little bit more stressful (besides the fact that it was for a rehearsal dinner), I was out of town for residency interviews until the night before the cake needed to be completed. That gave me about 14 hours to make 3 dozen cupcakes and the tank cake.
I found this great tutorial online on how to make a tank cake. I think it was meant for people with more cake experience, because it estimated the amount of time to make a tank cake as a mere 45 minutes and then you finish up with airbrushing. At any rate, it was a good start. I made two 13"x9" yellow cakes.
First, I frosted one:
Then I put the second one on top and cut it a little to give a more "tank-like" shape. I decided what was "tank-like" not based on any experience with tanks, but thanks to Google Images.
And frosted that:
If I did it again, I would spend a little more time to go over the frosting and smooth things out. I did a little bit, but not enough.
And then the fondant. This was only the second time that I had worked with fondant. I used Wilton moss green
gel food coloring for the color. It was my first time working with the Duff (of Charm City Cakes) Fondant that they sell at Michaels. I didn't like that you had to heat it in the microwave to get it to a workable consistence.
OK, so not the smoothest cake.... but I was still happy with it :)
I made the cannon by covering a pourette cookie in fondant. I just sort of made little decdorations to give the tank some character, which were loosly based on pictures of tanks online and my imagination. And voila! Tank cake:
It wasn't perfect, but overall a success.
Carlene, posing with the cake and cupcakes
Congratulations to Karen and Owen!