Aeroplane Birthday and Anniversary Cake

This aeroplane cake was for a couple who visited South Africa for some significant moments in their life. It was both the husband and the wife’s 40th birthday and their anniversary. They also made use of the opportunity to renew their vows. The man is a pilot and flies this model of aircraft. The cake is based on a Piper Warrior if I remember correctly.

My friend Madenia and I got the blueprints off the internet and then worked out the ratios and sizes to scale, or reasonably close to the required size for our cake. The body is all cake, on a shaped board. Orange cake with a mixed citrus peel buttercream. It is about 53cm in length and each wing is 30cm in length. The wings are cardboard covered in fondant. The tail and fin are both fondant, treated with tylose to harden it.

It has to be assembled at the venue and this alone took two hours. Because of the weight, it was very difficult to get the aeroplane to balance, as we wanted it to be elevated and not flat on the board. We made holes in the board where we pushed in dowels and secured it in the holes with a glue gun. Then we quickly put blobs of glue on the dowels with the gun and placed our very very heavy cake on top of it, hoping and praying all through. The moment of truth proved to be a positive one, thank God!

I cannot describe the elation when we were done, having achieved what we set out to do. We are both self-taught home bakers and we improve our skills simply by trying new things all the time. This whole project, although well planned and executed, was still hanging on a prayer until the last moment.

Leavinig the venue we kept telling each other “you’re awesome” and this carried on all the way home! LOL!

Related cakes: