Coolest Tiki Cake

My cousin really goes all out for her annual Tiki party (fancy invitation, decorations, prizes for best dressed – this year’s highlight, a Tiki drink dress complete with umbrella hat, orange slice, and straw. This year’s winner, a life size paper mache Tiki God. Anyway, I wanted to make her a cake as special as the annual event and that’s when I came across this helpful site – thanks to all for your postings and inspiration!

This Tiki cake was created by splitting three 8in round chocolate cakes (with a shot of dissolved instant coffee to bring out the flavor) and filling them with layers of strawberry jam. Once they were lined up in a totem on foam core, a thick layer of marshmallow icing was added, and on top of that, a thin coat of chocolate fondant was rolled out and placed on top.

That was the easy part, the nose was then sculpted and the Tiki features cut out of rolled fondant – this was the first time I worked in that medium and it took a few tries to get the shapes I wanted, but was a lot like rolling out a pie crust. The teeth are attached pieces of Orbit gum.

The small cupcakes are actually decorated brownie bites from Costco – they tasted fresh and reduced the baking time for the project considerably. Six dozen were available on trays and around the cake so guests could enjoy a quick bite without disturbing the main cake before cutting time.

The sand ‘base’ was a pile of light brown sugar used to cover the rough edge of the fondant. The castor sugar flowers were made by pressing sugar paste (white sugar, slightly moistened with a few drops of water) into a children’s sand castle form and then drying overnight. This is a very simple way to accent any cake with edible and ‘in theme’ accents.

This year’s best comment “It was amazing! And it tasted like ho hos….yummy!”