A friend of mine asked me to make her husband a cake for his birthday. He is president of a picture frame molding company. She selected an image from the internet of a picture frame that she liked, so I used that as my guide for designing the cake.
She wanted carrot cake so I started by making two shallow 9x13x2 inch carrot cakes. I then placed them in the freezer, since they are easier for me work with when frozen. When I was ready to assemble the cake I made a cream cheese frosting to place between the cake layers. I layered them and then made a butter cream icing for the rest of the cake (I thought the cream cheese icing may not hold up as well once covered with fondant).
I crumb coated the whole cake with buttercream. I made a batch of Rice Krispie treats to add to the edges of the cake for the sides and top of the frame. I shaped these to fit the cake sides and adhered with butter cream icing. I used a rectangle of white fondant for the center of the frame cake. I tinted fondant tan for the frame part since I was going to paint it with a gold finish and thought this would look best. I began cutting and placing the tan fondant around all sides of the cake. I finished the frame with strips of fondant placed as swirls on the frame corners.
I cut out lettering for the company name/logo out of bright blue Wilton Sugar Sheets, super fun to use but very delicate to work with. I hand cut out all letters for the birthday greeting and applied to the white fondant after applying a tiny dab of water spread on the fondant where the letters would go. If you put more water than a tiny bit, the sugar sheet colors will bleed onto the fondant. I used Gold Pearl Dust mixed with a little vodka to paint the entire frame gold.
I think it turned out great!
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