Playground

Kathy works at an elementary school. She promised the kids she would make a cake for them if they behaved well over a period of time. They did. So she made the cake. This was the first time Paul helped out on a cake. This was when they discovered the joy of building cakes together.

The children requested to have certain playground aspects. There are swings, a soccer field, a skate park, and a school bus. Rice Krispie treats were used quite a bit, as were Twizzler Pull 'n Peel. Pepperidge Farm Pirouette rolled wafers (cookies) and melted chocolate round out the ingredients for the decorations. The cake is two layers of Funfetti cake mix, covered by home made fondant. Kathy put a lot of work into that. It is cheaper to buy the ingredients in comparison to the pre-made fondant, but it does take a lot of effort.

The supports for the swings are the cookies, painted with melted orange chocolate. The flat swing is crafted from fondant, the "tire" swing is a small frosted donut. The "chains" are Twizzler pieces. The sand pit is Rice Krispie treat.

Here we have the soccer field. The goal frame is cookie, painted with frosting. The field lines are frosting. Kathy crafted the soccer ball out of a large marshmallow, Paul painted the black spots with melted chocolate, applied using the almost pentagonal shape of the end of a Pull 'n Peel Twizzler. Kathy's mom wove the net out of Twizzlers.

The skate park was carved out of Rice Krispie treats and painted over with melted chocolate. We bought some spray on black food color, but for some reason it made the fondant taste like burning (we always sample parts of the cake along the way, for quality assurance). We ditched the spray color in favor of melted chocolate. It turned out very nicely.

Finally, the school buss. Carved from a block of Rice Krispie treats, painted with melted chocolate and a Twizzler as a brush, and wheeled with York Peppermint Patties, this bus was actually functional in that it could roll on it's wheels.

The little people on the cake were bought at the store, we aren't that crafty yet. This cake was prepared in May 2011.