Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Limits

I am always tickled when someone comes to me with some fantastic cake idea that no one else has really approached me with. My Ghostbusters Cake and my "Why U No Like" cake have been two of my most popular pop culture cakes with links and constantly daily hits each day from all around the world.

That same creative mind came back with the biggest challenge I've been handed so far in my Pop Culture Cake career. The Buddy Christ.

At first he wanted a two foot tall cake structure with all the bells and whistles the Buddy Christ sported in the movie Dogma. Dogma is certainly up there in the list of my cinema faves. Snarky view of Catholicism. Kevin Smith. Chris Rock. Jay Mewes. Ben & Matt. And mother fucking Alannis Morrisette as GOD. How the fuck can you NOT love this movie?

I was honest with him and told him I've never done a cake like this before and I doubted I had the talent to pull it off. He came back and asked for a flat, 2D pic on a cake. I agreed. After doing my cake research online I stumbled upon a pretty badass cake done by another baker. I don't know how much of it was actual cake and how much was structure and support. I decided that my cake should consist of a rice crispy treat & fondant Buddy Christ atop an actual cake painted as a pedestal. That seemed pretty fucking badass to me, and I priced it for him and pitched my idea.

My friend went wild. He fucking loved it.

The ball is in my court again. Shit. Did I mention I'm not an actual ARTIST- you know; someone who can look at something and render it well enough to be recognizable to the original? My own shit- sure I can come up with some pretty cakes that I made up in my own head. However, trying to emulate a popular icon or image is hard for me. Certain things can be traced or stenciled easily enough, like Ghostbusters. I struggled with "Why U No Like Me" because even though it's drawn badly- it's still stylized and drawn badly in a very specific way. I can't just go and draw some round head with a big nose with a furrowed brow my own way and just assume people knew what I was trying to copy. It took me two hours to free hand that fucking image, and it still wasn't prefect. Thankfully, it was recognizable enough to be successful.

Buddy Christ. I will have to build an armature out of wire and floral tape. I will have to make some rice crispy treats and slap them onto that armature to built enough support for the heavy fondant, and hope I made the wire part strong so that it won't bend and buckle under the weight of everything.

I've never built an armature before. I've not worked with rice crispy treats. I've never made a one-foot-tall ANYTHING to go on top of a cake. Man, how am I going to do this???

2 comments:

  1. Just don't freak out. You freak out, and it all goes to shit. I'm sure you'll do it justice. I've seen Dogma a bunch of times and I can't get enough of it. That's just not the angry Jew in me snickering at some catholic bashing. It's a smart movie.

    You're a smart baker and you'll make it work. If I know you, you've probably sent out a mass email to all your art friends asking for armature tips. Take step by step photos this time, ok? I think it'd be really interesting to see how it all comes out!

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    1. Yeah, I know. I'll try not to freak out. It's a good idea with the photos. I'll see what I can do.

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