I made this cake for my friend’s 40th birthday! My friends grandest wish is to someday own his own grand piano, unfortunately the best I could do was make one (on a much smaller scale).
This was my friends first real birthday party since he was a kid and I wanted to make it super special. I’ve been making cakes for my friends for the last couple of years but this one was the most challenging, This is the first time I’ve ever worked with fondant and it was almost a complete disaster!
I started by making the base from a composite board and dowels. The cake was a lemon pound cake (my friend’s fav) this was the easy part. I used two layers of cake which I cut using the base as a guide. I covered the cake with buttercream frosting and chilled while I rolled out the fondant! This is where the fun started (not really).
I don’t have the tools to properly roll out the fondant so I had to use my muscles. It took three times to get the fondant rolled out smooth and thin enough. Finally it was the right thickness and smooth. I carefully picked up the fondant and placed it on top of the cake. It looked great except it was just a tad bit short on the sides.
I’m already into the 4th hour of the cake… the party was 2 hours away and still had other food to make, cleaning, decorating and to get ready myself . Oh! Did I fail to mention that I’m also hosting the birthday bash?? Yup in 2 hours!! Slight panic attack!! So I persevered… I used small stripes of fondant to cover up the short spit!! Phew the cake was covered.
Now the details. Thankfully I made the keyboard out of fondant the day before and I made sheet music from a print out of happy birthday which I glued to a fondant made sheet music booklet! There I had a grand piano but it was missing something… The piece de resistance!
I made three tiny candle sticks (all different sizes) from beads and chiseled down actual candles to fit my tiny candle sticks. Finally my grand piano cake was done, maybe? No, no it’s done!!!
My friend was blown away;)
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