Purple Corset Cake

One of the hubby’s best mates turned 40 at the beginning of March and the hubby came home one night and asked if I would like to make the cake for J’s birthday.  Of course I said yes, and then he asked if I could make the cake in the shape of breasts.  Even though I haven’t really made a lot of “novelty” cakes, well, make that none whatsoever, I thought what the heck and started planning.

Now when you type into Mr Google breast/boob/corset cake there are a plethora of images at your disposal, some of which are a little bit to tacky for my liking (there is no way to make a nipple look good on a cake in my opinion) but I found some inspiration in a couple of cakes, and a corset from an online lingerie shop and proceeded to order the fondant, tins and a few other bits and pieces from my favourite supplier Cake Decorating Central.  With all of this in hand, and J’s favourite colour, I proceeded to make a purple corset cake.

The plan for the cake was to make a chocolate cake and as J loves all things mint, it would be layered with a mint Swiss Meringue Buttercream (the Martha Stewart recipe but without the vanilla extract and adding 3 tablespoons of Creme de Menthe instead).

I used the same recipe from the Chocolate Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream for the cake and made five batches as it was a four layer cake, and one batch made the breasts.  When I was looking for the best way to make the breasts, I was trying to avoid buying another cake tin (not because I didn’t want to, more because I am running out of room) and a lot of people suggested using a bowl and just shaping the top to remove the flat area.  However, laziness won out and I purchased the Wilton 3D Ball cake tin which ended up being the perfect size and shape.

As the ball cake tin was 6″ in diameter, I needed to make the body at least 12″ and opted for a 15″ x 13″ tin which allowed me to shape the cake a little as well as providing a little space between the breasts.  Once batch of the cake made a perfect layer which meant that I didn’t have to do any cutting to level the layers out which was fantastic.

One batch of SMB was the perfect quantity for this cake as I kept 150g aside and then split the remainder into three equal portions, and yes I did get out the scales to ensure they were all the same.  The three portions were spread out between the four layers of cake with the residual 150g used to stick the two breasts on the top of the cake.

I placed the cake in the freezer for an hour or so to firm up so I could make it appear a little more realistic by giving the torso a waist and removing the square edges at the top.

Once I was happy with the shape, I wrapped the cake in cling wrap and placed in the fridge overnight.  End of day one.

The next morning, the first thing I did was make the ganache to cover the cake with in order to make the fondant stick.  The ratio of chocolate to cream I used was 2:1 but I made waaaaaaaaay too much ganache so have had a massive bowl of it in my fridge for the last week which is very tempting.  I probably should have put the cake in the freezer beforehand as there were little bits of the cake that fell away at the edges as I was covering it in ganache and there may not have been so much of it if it had been in the freezer.  But on the other hand, the little bit of softness helped make the edges nice and curved.

Next it was time to tackle the fondant.  I haven’t had a lot of experience with fondant, mainly because I am addicted to SMB, but there was really no other choice for this cake.  I heard good things about Fondarific which is meant to taste nicer than your normal fondant so I requested a sample from Cake Decorating Central and was pleasantly surprised.  In the sample pack I received there were a couple of small samples of the fruit flavoured fondants, and a larger portion of the buttercream fondant in white.  I had a little taste and quite liked it so decided to go ahead and order some more.  I didn’t have to worry about ordering any more white, as the sample that was sent was just enough to cover the top portion of the cake.  In order to make it a skin colour, I kneaded a small amount of Americolor’s Ivory gel paste into the fondant.  They sell a Copper/Fleshtone gel paste but when I saw the sticker on top of the bottle it looked a little bit too much like fake tan to me, and I figured I could probably get a little bit more use out of the ivory colour anyway.

I used The Mat in order to roll out the fondant and then transfer it to the cake and it was pretty good and made transferring the fondant quite easy.  However I did have a problem with the purple fondant as it didn’t want to come away from the mat so I don’t know if I had rolled it too thin, or I had not seasoned The Mat properly, but my dreams of a nice smooth corset were dashed.  🙁

I placed the skin coloured fondant on first, and then the purple.  There were a couple of little patch jobs that needed to happen but was OK for my first attempt at this sized cake in fondant.

In order to cover the join at the top of the corset, I created some ruffles out of a strip of black fondant by using a small dowel to give each fold a little bit of a round shape.  I found this step easiest doing it directly onto the cake by placing the fondant down, gently pressing the dowel on top, then folding the fondant a little, using the dowel to retain a little bit of shape from underneath and then repeating all the way along (very bad way of describing it I am sorry).  I also did this at the bottom of the cake.

I then cut thin strips of the fondant to create some of the shape of the corset using it from the middle of the breasts down to the base in a V shape, and then underneath the breasts.  It also help hide a little bit of the patchy job underneath one of them.  I also finished the bottom of the sides and base with a black strip to make it look a little neater.

For the buttons, I used 13mm edible black diamonds which worked out a treat.  I placed the pointy end into the cake, and yes I did get the ruler out to make sure they were equally spaced.  I placed one of them at the very top where the strips of fondant under the breasts met to hide the join.

You can see there was a little bit of purple that ended up on the flesh, but I figured most people would be looking from the other direction so it didn’t matter as much (plus, I had difficulty tidying it up).

The cake arrived at the birthday shindig just as the birthday boy did so we could unveil it straight away and it was very well received.  One of J’s friends is a baker and he was very impressed with the look and flavour of the cake as well as how moist it was so I was chuffed to hear that.

But the main thing was that J loved it and you can’t ask for more than that!

Recipes and Materials

• 13″ x 15″ rectangular cake tin (Australia | USA)
• Wilton sports ball cake tin (Australia | USA)
• 14″ x 16″ rectangular cake board (Australia | USA)
• Cake – 5 batches of the Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream – Omit the vanilla and replace with 3 tablespoons of Creme de Menthe.
• Ganache – Ratio of 2:1 for chocolate:cream.  Use one 300ml carton of pure cream with twice the amount of chocolate and it should be enough (I made double this and it was WAY to much).
• Fondant
  • Purple (Australia | USA) – 910g (2lbs).  This was probably just short of what I needed, so might be best to buy a little extra (maybe a 225g/8oz tub)
  • Black (Australia | USA) – 225g (8oz).
  • Skin (Australia | USA) – A small amount of white fondant (should be less than 225g/8oz).  Tint it with a drop or two of Americolor Ivory Paste.
• 13mm Black Diamonds