The Schinker Family

A while back, I blogged about some of the specialty cakes I’ve made.  Over the last week, this is the project that has kept me busy! This cake was made for Emily’s and Megan’s Amazon rainforest fundraiser birthday party at the bowling alley yesterday.  Em turned 9 last week and Meg will turn 7 next week.  They chose to have a joint birthday party again this year, but NOT at our house (first time ever): at the local bowling alley/entertainment center!  They also chose to raise money to preserve the Amazon rainforest in lieu of gifts.

So they asked me to create a “rainforest bowling” cake set in the Amazon with an anaconda, a jaguar, and poison dart frogs bowling.  Oh, and Emily wanted her candles in the trees and Meg wanted hers in the bowling pins.  As you can imagine, there are no existing patterns out there for that specific kind of cake!  So I browsed around online for inspiration, spent many nights mulling over the logistics, and started executing earlier in the week.

All the animals are made from fondant and were made pretty early in the week so they would dry.  In addition to the anaconda, jaguar and dart frogs, I made a black howler monkey and a capybara.  The tree trunks, bowling ball, bowling pins, winding river, and waterfall waves were also made from fondant.  The treetops were made from royal icing, placed on an upside-down flower former for the shape, and attached to the trunks with a glob of buttercream frosting.  The water of the river was enhanced with a light coat of glycerin t make it look wet and a sprinkle of blue shimmer powder for added pizazz!

The hardest part of making this cake was the assembly.  We got to the alley about 1/2 hour early and it took that time and more to set up the bowling pins, insert the trees, and pipe the greetings on the cakeboard.  Everyone thought the cake was spectacular, and most importantly, the kids loved it!  Even though several trees fell over during the party – and one leaned enough when we were singing happy birthday to catch its neighbor on fire! – this cake was definitely a sweet success!