This has got to be one of my favorite cakes by far.
- Tell story with cake - check
- Freeform landscaping ie. any shapes and sizes I like - check
- It's messy, and it's alright - check
- Plenty of cute details - check
After playing architect/baker and planning and designing for a week or so, I started building my construction site birthday cake:
I like using toys on themed cakes, kids get to keep and play with them after.
It's messy and if you crush by hand like I do, your fingers will be seriously cramping up by the time you're halfway through construction destruction. At this point, you have some options:
1) Employ child labour and let the kids in the house do the smashing (my fave method!).
2) Do finger crunches to build up stamina - but I can tell you from first hand experience, that if you're doing the crunches at the time you're making the cake, it's too late. Give up already.
3) Seal the biscuits up in a ziplock bag, throw it repeatedly against the wall. You'll have to do another round of crumbling the pieces further by hand after, but the wall-smashing is superbly satisfying. Highly recommended.
Big pieces go in first - toys, big sign plates. They anchor the landscape, and we fill in the smaller bits after. Stones, pebbles, rocks, stop sign, u-turn signs, barriers, construction cones. Go wild.
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There are a lot of details to this cake, but it's the details that make cakes come alive. The teeny tiny pieces take some time and planning, and it's all worth it when it comes together, and you see the birthday boy's giant grin. Time to dig in!
