I used three boxes of cake mix for this treasure chest cake; one for lid, and one for each of the two layers on the bottom. (I used pans that were about 14×10.5 for each of the three layers.) I used a very thick chocolate buttercream icing. On the lid, I put a LOT of icing in the center (longwise) and domed it to have a curved lid (it’s not the cake that’s curved).
The metal strips and rivets are fondant, painted with the silver and copper powders (mixed with a drop of a clear-colored extract) found in the cake decorating isle. The treasure map is fondant, painted, slit edges, and rolled at top. Sand is brown sugar. Gold nuggets are gold nonpareils. Coins and gold bars are from Cost Plus, some of them are glued into place with a smidge of icing.
The lid cake is on a foil covered piece of cake cardboard, cut to size. It is held up by five wooden dowels cut to size; two longer ones up front to keep lid open – hidden by coins, and three at the very back, cut shorter. Put hole/notches in the bottom of the lid cardboard, where the dowels will rest in so the lid doesn’t slip off. It is a bit tricky getting the lid on just right, it took two of us to do it! Oh, I cooked the cakes a little longer to make them more dense so that the treasure chest would hold up. The whole thing is on a wooden cutting board covered in foil.
Hi! My names Rosemary and I’m 10 years old. I like to bake and my mother bought a cafe so I can turn it into mine after school and I was hoping I could get your recipe and put it on the menu. I will be happy if I could and if you do then I would be happy to give you one of recipe.
You can have the brownies or the cupcakes or the quich (eggs with sweet potato and leeks and other yummy stuff like a pie.)Let me know soon!
Your Sincerely…
Rosemary Kim ¢½
We love this cake! We have looked at every single treasure chest cake on the internet I think! And my soon to be 6 yr old wants YOURS. How experienced at cake making are you? I ask because its fantastic and I am not very experienced and I want to know if I should even try it or not!
You did a very good job!!!!
Rather than the fondant, I softened two king sized tootsie rolls, rolled them out. I scored the edges with a fork to create a stitching effect. It was easy and looked like leather!