I made this homemade beer bucket cake using two 8” round cakes (it could have been made larger). This is a chocolate cake with Oreo cream filling between the 3 layers. This cake required only one box of cake mix and about 5 cups of filling/frosting (I iced the cake thick on the outer edges because the couple didn’t want to eat the fondant).
I made one batch of marshmallow fondant (16 oz mini marshmallows, 2 lbs powdered sugar, 2 tbsp water), colored half of it gray, ¼ of it brown for the bottles, and then small amounts for all the details on the bottles. I also used some of the edible markers to write details on the beer bottles.
To make the beer bottles I used cereal treats and molded them to the shape of a bottle. I then iced it with royal icing so that it would have a smooth surface to cover with fondant. I covered the bottles with the brown fondant and then rubbed them with Crisco to make them shine to look like they were wet. To decorate the beer bottles I simply looked at the three different real bottles and tried to include as many of the details as possible using fondant, edible markers, and royal icing.
To make the ice cubes, I used half sugar and half corn syrup and poured the cooked mixture into ice cube trays. I froze them until I was ready to use them. Just before putting them on the cake, I sprinkled sugar on them.
To cover the cake, I rolled out the fondant to the circumference of the cake and exactly 1 inch taller than the cake. I believe it was 24 inches long by 4 inches tall. I then wrapped the fondant around the outer edges, and left the top covered only with frosting. I then cut out a thin strip of fondant the same length, 24 inches by 1/4 inch, and carefully pinched it around the top edge. I then cut out another 24 by ¼ inch strip and wrapped it around the bottom.
To make the handles of the bucket, I cut 4 small rectangles, and rolled 8 round balls, flattened them, and put an “x” on the center to look like screws. Then I rolled 2 long thin strips of fondant for the handles. I attached the rectangles, 2 on each side, added 1 screw on the top of each rectangle, then before placing the bottom screw on, I attached each end of the handle and then covered the ends with a screw. I used vanilla extract to attach all the fondant details to each other.
I stuck a long dowel in each beer bottle so that I could just stick them into the cake, and the ice cubes I gently placed around the beer bottles and then piled a few on top of each other to make it look full – I believe I used 12 ice cubes. Be sure to make the beer bottles at least 1 day ahead of time, and the ice 2 days before.
What method did you use to wrap the fondant around? I am making a cake and having trouble. Help please!