The pirate figure was made using the smallest child from the PME people moulds. This made it slightly boyish which I thought might soften the pirate's demeanor (he only likes nice pirates), and will hopefully will add a childish perspective to the cake.
So ... Pirate figure .... This is going to be very similar in some respects to my post on how to make a Merida Cake Topper, however, I haven't finished making Merida yet, so that post is still only half finished. Forgive my copy-paste repetition between these posts if you've already read Merida's or are going to!
The Moulds
The moulds were sprayed with cake release spray to ensure they released the icing at the end. This was in line with the manufacturers instructions to oil the moulds before use. See also my icing and moulds experiment.
Fondant colours:
I strengthened the skin coloured fondant using Tylose Powder (see here).
I rolled a small amount of the skin-coloured fondant into a crease free ball, rolled it out slightly and then pressed it into the cavity for the face. I kept working the fondant until I was sure it had got into all of the details and come up the sides to fully coat the head. I then formed a second ball of fondant and pushed that into the head mould to fill it. The body and neck were also filled with balls of skin coloured fondant, pushed into place using the same method. The reverse of the mould was also filled in this way. The two halves of the mould were pressed together firmly, the mould was opened and excess fondant was cut away, the mould was then reapplied to the fondant shape, and whilst the two halves were being pushed together, a cocktail stick inserted from the open end. The figure was left in the mould until the other features had been created, it was then taken apart to remove the soft figure. The seams were then softened using a bone tool.
Leaving the figure in the mould minimised drying whilst the other pieces were being made.
I found that using a ball of fondant to "coat" the mould before filling the bulk of the mould gave a crease free finish to the figure's skin.
A similar approach as with the torso was taken with the legs and arms. The the left hand was then cut off and replaced with a hook sculpted in light grey fondant.
Using wire and a cockatil stick I assembled the figure; and positioned the legs etc. small sections of the arms were removed to improve the appearance once positioned. Likewise the legs had wedges removed to help the positioning of the figure into a sitting position - I feel standing is a little ambitious for my first figure.
The body parts were then set aside (individually) to dry.
The shoes were added to the feet and trousers to the legs. This was rather fiddly, I did actually start this while the figure was still soft - and I am glad I did, my easiest option was to part the legs so I could smooth the icing join down and form the inside leg seam.
The body was then left overnight to dry, during this time the hook was painted using metallic silver food paint.
I live in the UK and the weather was unusually hot, my flat was at about 35 degrees Celsius, and this made rolling out the icing thinly without getting it too dry or sticky very challenging. I therefore rolled it out between 2 sheets of greaseproof, which was very helpful when handling the thin icing, I found this so useful I think I will continue doing this, even when the weather is cooler.
The arms were dressed with the sleeves of the jacket and the seams softened. The arms were then attached to the body using edible glue, and supported using various objects whilst they dried.
Unfortunately I had part of a leg fall off, luckily pirate's can have wooden legs; so I replaced it with one of these!
I mixed up paint colours using food colouring diluted with vodka. for the whites of the eyes I used icing whitener mixed with a couple drops of vodka. Alternatively you can use rejuvenating spirit and/or tint colours. See my edible paints post here.
To give the facial features and colour, I begun with the eyes. I painted them white, then, once they had dried the blue iris's were painted on, and then, after drying again, the pupils added. Using a few coats of light brown paint I then painted on the eye lids.
For the hair, I produced a template from greaseproof paper, I used this to shape a thin piece of yellow fondant and then painted it with a thin wash of brown.
Fondant colours:
- Pale skin-coloured (the face is darkened by painting later)
- Black
- Dark Red
- Light Brown
- Light Grey
- White
- Green
- Yellow
I strengthened the skin coloured fondant using Tylose Powder (see here).
I rolled a small amount of the skin-coloured fondant into a crease free ball, rolled it out slightly and then pressed it into the cavity for the face. I kept working the fondant until I was sure it had got into all of the details and come up the sides to fully coat the head. I then formed a second ball of fondant and pushed that into the head mould to fill it. The body and neck were also filled with balls of skin coloured fondant, pushed into place using the same method. The reverse of the mould was also filled in this way. The two halves of the mould were pressed together firmly, the mould was opened and excess fondant was cut away, the mould was then reapplied to the fondant shape, and whilst the two halves were being pushed together, a cocktail stick inserted from the open end. The figure was left in the mould until the other features had been created, it was then taken apart to remove the soft figure. The seams were then softened using a bone tool.
Leaving the figure in the mould minimised drying whilst the other pieces were being made.
I found that using a ball of fondant to "coat" the mould before filling the bulk of the mould gave a crease free finish to the figure's skin.
A similar approach as with the torso was taken with the legs and arms. The the left hand was then cut off and replaced with a hook sculpted in light grey fondant.
Using wire and a cockatil stick I assembled the figure; and positioned the legs etc. small sections of the arms were removed to improve the appearance once positioned. Likewise the legs had wedges removed to help the positioning of the figure into a sitting position - I feel standing is a little ambitious for my first figure.
The body parts were then set aside (individually) to dry.
The shoes were added to the feet and trousers to the legs. This was rather fiddly, I did actually start this while the figure was still soft - and I am glad I did, my easiest option was to part the legs so I could smooth the icing join down and form the inside leg seam.
For dressing the pirate, I started with a white shirt. I used a template that came with the moulds to create this. As my pirate would be wearing a jacket I only made the front half of the shirt.
The body and legs were glued together using edible glue, and then a dark red jacket was then added to the torso.
The body was then left overnight to dry, during this time the hook was painted using metallic silver food paint.
I live in the UK and the weather was unusually hot, my flat was at about 35 degrees Celsius, and this made rolling out the icing thinly without getting it too dry or sticky very challenging. I therefore rolled it out between 2 sheets of greaseproof, which was very helpful when handling the thin icing, I found this so useful I think I will continue doing this, even when the weather is cooler.
The arms were dressed with the sleeves of the jacket and the seams softened. The arms were then attached to the body using edible glue, and supported using various objects whilst they dried.
Unfortunately I had part of a leg fall off, luckily pirate's can have wooden legs; so I replaced it with one of these!
I mixed up paint colours using food colouring diluted with vodka. for the whites of the eyes I used icing whitener mixed with a couple drops of vodka. Alternatively you can use rejuvenating spirit and/or tint colours. See my edible paints post here.
To give the facial features and colour, I begun with the eyes. I painted them white, then, once they had dried the blue iris's were painted on, and then, after drying again, the pupils added. Using a few coats of light brown paint I then painted on the eye lids.
For the hair, I produced a template from greaseproof paper, I used this to shape a thin piece of yellow fondant and then painted it with a thin wash of brown.
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