Portfolio: Hannah Montana Cake

Ah, the annoyance that is Hannah Montana.   I pray that my daughter will never end up falling prey to the marketing madness that is Hannah Montana and it's ilk, but I realize that it's wishful thinking.   Even budding cake decorators are not immune to the fancies of first graders as in this case.  My godsister was turning 8, and her mom told me that she had originally wanted a Batman cake, but that Mathilda changed her mind, since "her friends wouldn't think that was cool." So Mathilda wanted a Barbie cake instead.

Mom and I both thought Batman was cool and that Barbie was not, so we asked Mathilda for something else. Hannah Montana was the answer. OK, I thought, I can still make this cool. And I did. I sculpted Hannah's electric guitar out of white cake and iced it with neon purple-pink royal icing. In hindsight, this was probably not the smartest idea because when I transferred the cake to it's final resting place, it broke right in the middle of the guitar neck and the icing cracked since it had already hardened in some places.

This could have been solved by actually putting the cake on the board prior to icing and then placing pieces of parchment paper underneath it, which I would have then removed upon completion. Well, hindsight is always 20/20 vision, as my best friend tells me! Anyway, the birthday girl loved it and I learned some very valuable techniques from this experience.

Happy Baking!
Kelly