Bittersweet Peacock Farewell Cake

I made this peacock farewell cake for a special lady, a sweet friend at church who was moving away to be closer to her family. It had to be as beautiful and as graceful as she is.

The cake itself is just a 3 tier white cake with buttercream icing . Be sure to put in a dowel for support under where the bird will sit to keep it from pushing down the edge of cake.

For the peacock body I hand molded self made Rice Krispie treats with no butter into the shape of the body.

I molded the front bottom in the shape that would allow it to sit on top of the cake but allow the backside to hang over the edge. I put this aside to dry for a couple of days.
I then covered the body with brown colored gum paste.
I rolled about a half inch by 8 inch piece of gum paste and ran a florist wire through it and bent it into the shape of a neck and head leaving enough wire at the bottom to stick into the body.
I worked the gum paste down toward the body until it looked like I wanted it to… kind of like working with clay. TIP: It always helps me to keep my hands and fingers covered with shortening while working the paste.
I inserted a wooden skewer into the bottom of the peacock and stuck it in Styrofoam to dry.

A few days before I put it all together I colored gum paste brown and teal.

For the large feathers I cut the teal in approx. 1 inch circles with a large icing tip then cut a triangle notch on one side of the circle.
I used a large leaf cookie cutter to cut out the brown feather.
I cut white circles about an inch across then rolled them a bit to make them oblong and sprayed them with Wilton gold shimmer icing spray.

The small feathers were done in the same way just using smaller cutters. I let all the pieces dry and then glued them together with piping gel… brown feather, topped with gold oval and then teal eye. I made approx. 30 large and 40 small feathers.

After everything was hardened I used piping gel to glue the small feathers to the bird and when it was set I stuck the bird with skewer into the cake where the support was placed. I then started gluing the large feathers to the cake using piping gel and icing. I started at the bottom so the feathers would overlap as I worked up the cascade. I just placed them where I thought they needed to be to get the look I wanted.

I used a small tube tip to put random swirls and eyes on the peacock and I carefully stuck 4 blue ball tipped straight pins in the head for the crown.

I loved making this cake for my friend, but it was bittersweet because I’m going to miss her Sunday morning hugs and her sweet voice. My friend loved her farewell cake and had to have her picture take with it. I got my hugs for making it and I’ll cherish them!!!

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