Cake #2=Gabe's Misfits Drum Set Cake

I am glad to finally be posting my newest cake that my friend Jen asked me to do for her boyfriend, Gabe's, surprise birthday party.  After sneaking around poor Gabe's back for weeks, Jen and I figured out the perfect design for this cake.  She was a great help with sending me pictures of him with his drums and information on the Misfits, one of his favorite bands.

The idea:
Replica of Gabe's drum set with the logo of the Misfits skull on the bass drum.
Sounds easy... right...?

I started with the logo.  This was probably the most intricate part of the cake, but definitely the most fun for me.  I wanted to be able to transfer the design onto the fondant somehow, and then cut out the pattern from there.  But I couldn't get the right sizing, so I had to free hand it.

From there, I cut out the cymbals.  In order to get the brassy color, I dyed fondant with copper food dye and then "painted" them with a watered down brown color.  I used a food dye marker to write out the Zildjian logo on each one.  To get them to have the cymbal shape, I balled up a small amount of fondant and molded them around each one.  I allowed them to dry on there as well so they would keep their form.  I also used wooden dowels which I painted with a mix of black food dye and silver edible dust to create a metalic look for the cymbals to stand on.

Each small drum is a cupcake that I cut into a cylindrical shape, ( I cut one in half to create the snare drum.) and covered them in a teal fondant which I glazed with a watered down mix of black food dye and edible pearl dust.

The base drum is two 6" round pans 2" deep.  I pasted them together with chocolate icing and used the same process with the fondant that I used with the smaller drums.  For the heads, I used the Misfits logo on a black painted fondant circle and a plain black one for the back.  To make it stand, I used three wooden dowels which I placed vertically inside the two cakes and stuck them into the base.

(By the way, the time on the clock is A.M.)

The base of the cake was two 12x9" pans that were 2" deep.  I covered these with a brown tinted fondant and hand painted with brown food coloring a wood grain effect, to create a sort of stage for Gabe's drums.

From there I added a few details, such as sheet music, drum sticks and Gabe's favorite rug.  (Not pictured.)

There were a lot of hiccups along the way with this cake.  A lot of it had to do with the humidity we have been experiencing over the last few days.  The cymbals fell over because the support of the sheet cake wasn't enough, and the base drum almost collapsed into itself under its own weight.  But overall, it was a huge success. Jen and Gabe loved the cake.  Gabe even saved the base drum for himself to eat alone at home.  And I learned a lot along the way, of course.