My Mom’s 60th birthday was coming up and I wanted to make her a special wine bottle cake. My sister thought I should make something funny (a roll of toilet paper that read “You’re old as crap! Here’s to wiping another year away”). Besides the fact that my very conservative grandmother thought it was inappropriate to bring a cake like that in public! I actually wanted something classy for my mom.
I loved the idea of a wine bottle cake. The saying “Like a fine wine, you get better with age” came to mind. Although, I didn’t use that saying in the end. Once I decided on the basic concept I had to figure out how to actually make it.
Making the Wine Bottle Cake
I wasn’t sure how to do the wine bottle and was going to attempt making it out of sugar but in the end I decided to go with fondant. I took a wine bottle I already had at home, rubbed it down with Crisco, and covered it with powdered sugar. Then I rolled brown fondant out and it around the bottle. After it was shaped I cut the fondant so it was only a half bottle (you wouldn’t be able to tell once it was on the cake and that way I could just lift it off once dry).
Once it was completely dry (about 5 days later) I removed it from the wine bottle. To make it shiny I used edible glaze mixed with burgundy food coloring and painted it on. To create the label I went to a website that sells personalized wine, created a label and during the preview I took a screen shot. Then I cropped the image, took it to my local bakery and had them print the image on an icing sheet. I put a little bit of piping gel on the back of the image before putting it on my wine bottle so it would be more flexible and stay put! I honestly thought the wine bottle would be the hardest part but it was actually the easiest!
The Wine Bottle Cake Base
The cake base and box are also made of fondant. To make the wood texture I mixed different shades of brown and black, twisted them together and rolled them out. For the base I actually cut the rolled fondant into strips and laid it like you’d actually lay hard wood floors. Getting the sides of the box to the right dimensions was a little tricky and I actually made 2 boxes although I ended up using the first one I made – figures lol. The leaves were made out of green fondant. I placed them on crinkled aluminum foil so they’d dry in different wavy patterns. Once dry I dusted them with different shades of luster dust to make them look more life like. The grapes were easy but a little time consuming to make.
Wine Bottle Cake Accesories
I wanted grapes that looked real (and although my husband pointed out that I could’ve just used real grapes, I wanted everything to look the same). I rolled up balls of purple fondant, dipped floral wire in piping gel and inserted the wire in the end of each ball. After it was completely dry I attached each grape to a thicker piece of floral wire using floral tape. The end result was grapes that actually hung in a bunch. I dusted the grapes in different shades of purple luster dust to give them depth and added a brown stem.
The packing material in the box is coconut mixed with a few drops of brown food coloring. I have to say I never thought this cake would turn out as good as it did! This is only the 4th cake I’ve made using fondant!
To say my mom loved it is an understatement! She couldn’t stop raving about it, showing everyone pictures and posting pictures online lol! It made me feel really good that she liked it so much and that she knows how special she is to all of us! By the way, the actual cake was a key lime pound cake with a key lime glaze – delicious!! Well I hope you like my cake as much as I enjoyed making it!
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