Coolest KFC Bucket of Chicken and Sides Cake

This is my KFC chicken bucket and sides cake. I made this for my husband’s birthday. I did the silly thing and asked my two boys what should daddy’s cake be this year and they said KFC. Oh my, what a challenge it was. The hardest part was deciding what sides to do and what to make the chicken pieces out of.

I started to make the sides to get them dry in time and also out of the way so I had plenty of time to concentrate on the chicken and the cake itself. The cake board was covered with white and black fondant squares cut by hand and then red ribbon was attached to the side.

The corn on the cob was really easy to do although it took a little bit of time. I rolled a sausage of caramel colored gum paste, inserted a wooden dowel and made marks using a straight tool. The corn itself is gum paste colored yellow and rolled into small pill like shapes and stuck on individually. I then airbrushed it very slightly with a brown.

The beans and sauce pots where very quick and easy to make. I used an egg cup for the sauce pots to dry on in order to get that pot look and added a small flattened circle of gum paste to the bottom as a base of each pot. The beans pot was a large circle of gum paste dried over the bottom of a glass. The beans are just orange gumpaste rolled, tomato ketchup, bbq sauce and the bean sauce is just coloured royal icing and left to set. While the ketchup was setting I stuck a gumpaste chip into to look more realistic.

The chips/fries are just yellow gum paste cut into lengths and sprayed with brown airbrush paint to give a more realistic look. The fries packet is gum paste folded over so it’s one whole piece and was supported inside by some aluminum foil which also helped with the rustic look of the pack itself. Red fondant was added to the sides.

Popcorn chicken box is gum paste cut and glued together with added red fondant to keep the whole KFC theme.

Popcorn chicken and the chicken pieces in the bucket is made from RKT (rice krispie treats). This was very sticky. I had to keep wetting my hands with water so I could shape them and stop them from sticking to me and making a complete mess. When they were shaped and dried slightly I rolled them in crushed cornflakes and airbrushed with brown to give this great realistic look. Really brought them to life I think.

The bucket itself is made from a red velvet Madeira and a vanilla Madeira. I got the recipe from quaint cakes ( amazing recipes) filled with a white chocolate butter cream. Trimmed up the cakes after they had cooled, filled them and crumb coated them and then took the top layer of cake and took most of it away to leave a ridge round the outside in order for the chicken pieces to sit in nicely. Once crumb coated twice I rolled out red fondant and covered. The KFC logos was printed onto icing sheet and then stuck on. I tell you that made my life a lot easier.

This was my first ever food looking cake and I am so overwhelmed by the response I have had. I have my own networking page and the response from that is just amazing, over 1133 people have seen it, untold amount of people have shared the picture, husbands, work colleges are all getting in touch for orders etc. I must say this was a joy to make, the attention it had is amazing and I am proud of it.

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