WALL-E

Last Friday one of C's co-workers asked if I would have time to make a WALL-E cake for a birthday.  In spite of my reservations I agreed.  I was worried since there would be no time for a trial of anything, and I knew that I was going to have to support WALL-E's eyes in some magical way... what that way was, however, I had no idea.  I was also worried that due to my recent bout of insanity having left me signed up to run a 10K, my training schedule was only going to leave me with a few hours each night in which to decorate.  Late night + exhausted from getting up before the chickens every morning + sore from running/strength training = bad things happening with buttercream.  And nobody likes bad things happening with buttercream... or do they?

I started the cake a day earlier than I usually do so that I could alleviate some of the late night stress on myself.  I baked two 13x9 sheets of chocolate cake on Tuesday (you can see the recipe I used here - which fyi was super moist and awesome - I think I found my go-to chocolate cake recipe!).  I froze the cake on Wednesday morning (see I knew the 17 cubic foot chest freezer would come in handy for something!  I could have fit about 50 more of those bad boys in there along with the cow and pig - but I digress) so that it would be much easier to carve/torte.  What's a torte you ask?  Well a gentleman would never ask a lady.... I mean it's cutting cake into layers so that you can put delicious buttercream in between the layers.  ANYWAY... I froze the sucker, torted away, and crumb coated the cake on Wednesday.  I also made WALL-E's eyes.  They're guarding the Smirnoff... and the butter.  They eyes know how much butter I still need for the frosting.

Mmm... coating the crumbs...

So then last night I did the actual decorating, which honestly, with the eyes already done and the cake crumb coated, wasn't terrible. I made an orangy-yellow color for his body, gray for his treads and some details, and I cheated and used Wilton black decorators icing because I hate making black frosting (and because as you all know I run in street gangs and do what I want) because it never comes out back - it's always some sad shade of gray.  As requested by a friend, I had C take some "Action Shots" of me decorating.

Look at the serious face... look at the precision... look at the sad amount of counter space :-(  I need a new kitchen....

So magic happens, I do stuff... and VOILA!  WALL-E appears!

Ignore the bottle of wine... how'd that get in there?  The smirnoff must have invited friends over, cause I definitely never keep that much alcohol in my fridge...

There was an epic battle with WALL-E's eyes.  There was cursing, there were a few tears, there was a lot of cracking, and there was a lot of sagging... and nobody likes sagging (well OK, some gold diggers might be able to look past it and think of greener, money filled pastures - but we're not talking about that here!).  So many dowels, supports, and trickery with fondant and buttercream that magically matched the color of the fondant, I managed to cover it all up, get the eyes to stay, and celebrated my victory over all things edible! OK, not all things, but I was happy.

I decided to leave off the arms for a couple of reasons.  1. I didn't feel like having another epic battle over RKT support, and 2. I was tired.  C said the cake looked good without the arms, and I was too sleepy to argue.  Hopefully the client won't care either!

C took WALL-E to work with him this morning, which always makes me nervous since I'm not there in case something goes wrong, but he made it there safely, eyes and all! And there was much rejoicing!