3-tier western wedding cake with horseshoes. Covered in fondant with faux wood fondant covered base. Real rope trim on top and bottom layers. (16″ base tier) There was a topper the family had that was going to be added at the reception.
Also, check out my horseshoe, brand, barbed wire birthday cake, click here!
5 Replies to "Western Horseshoe Wedding Cake"
Dawn October 7, 2009 (5:01 am)
I LOVE your cake!! I would love to have this cake at my wedding on 9.4.10. Would you mind giving me more details about it? Thanks so much!! Dawn
2bluedogs October 7, 2009 (2:06 pm)
Hi Dawn, Thank you so much!! Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I’m not sure how much detail you want so let me know if you need more info.
THE BASE
The trim was 3 different trims that I got at walmart and sewed together. The board is covered in fondant. I used 3 different shades of brown fondant and made them each into a “snake” then stretched them together, folded them, stretched, folded until I got a kind of wood grain pattern then rolled it out flat and covered the board. Once I trimmed the fondant from the edge, I glued the trim onto the border. The wood base needs to have a spacer underneath it for the trim to hang down. My husband makes my boards and he always put a sturdy spacer board underneath because otherwise they are really hard to pick up and move because you can’t get your fingers under the board. Once the trim was on, I trimmed the fringe a little with scissors to make it the right length then added the frayed knot to the front. (a play on tieing the knot) 🙂
THE CAKE
The cake is covered in white fondant. I didn’t color it ivory, which is what I wanted to do, because it was so big (bottom layer is 16″) and I only had a few days notice from start to finish so I had to simplify. I’ve always had to use heating cores to make sure the middles of my big cakes cook all the way.
THE DECORATIONS
I used fondant. I used various cookie cutters to first cut out the outside of the horseshoe (a large acorn shape) and then a smaller cutter (a small acorn) to cut out the middle then used an exacto to clean up the tops of the shoes. I used a pointed tool to put the indents into the shoes and the heart. Let them dry really well, then I painted them with silver luster dust mixed with vodka. Let dry again. I always make extras of everything that way you can pick and choose the best ones and if something breaks, you have extras.
The fence was made from leftover base colors. I just rolled it out in a long strip then used a ruler and a pizza cutter to cut the posts and rails. then I used the pizza cutter and other tools to weather each board. Let dry. I kept the rails short enough so I could dry them flat and not rounded. If they were really long, they would need to be dried on a curve.
The flowers were just cut out of colored fondant with petal cutters and a scrapbook cosmo press (this was a little tricky). Let the flowers dry in something curved (I used a tray I got from sugarcraft).
THE ASSEMBLY
After everything has dried well, cover the cake in fondant, apply the trim (coordinate it with the base trim). Put a few knots in them and then wrapped them onto the cake. I put the fence on using minimal brown royal icing on the back of each board, then apply. I had to let the middle gate behind the heart dry well before applying the heart because the weight of the heart will drag them down. I just built the fence by eye then added the flowers, the heart and the horseshoes. To finish it off, I used royal icing to make some white on white embelishments around the horseshoes and that was it.
If I had more time I might have painted some blue skies/clouds… something really subtle on the top layer but not knowing what the topper was going to be and being short on time, I left it alone. Sometimes less is more… a hard lesson for me sometimes, it’s hard to quit working on them once you get started!
If I could change anything, I would not have put the ring of white icing/trim around the bottom of the fence because I think it looked better before I added that. I think adding a few tiny tufts of green grass around the fence would have been better. Also, the flowers would have been better – or they would have been an actual flower, not an imagined one… but it was such a rush so I had to do what I could get done.
Hope that helped! Tina
Dawn October 7, 2009 (8:50 pm)
Hi Tina! Thank you so much for your extremely detailed post! Wow, I don’t even know what to say! You are just so fabulously creative and talented as well. This really shows through on all your cakes and your photography, too!
This brings me to my next question…It appears that you live in the wonderful state of Wyoming. We live at the northern edge of my native Colorado – about 20 minutes south of Cheyenne. We are considering having our wedding iin Centennial, WY or possibly Red Feather Lakes, CO. We are very much a country/western couple. I am wondering if you ever offer your services to others (like strange people that find you on the web…)? My fiance and I are both in total agreement that this would be the perfect cake for us. And if so, what would be your best guess for a price on a cake like this? I am not sure what size we would need – as our guest list will include about 50 people. Our colors are deep red (wine), deep blue (cobalt) and ivory. We also have our topper picked out. You can view it at
http://www.sheplers.com/womens/wedding_accessories/284c58.html?color=03&SOURCE=DEALTIME_WESTWED&CS_003=2112464&CS_010=284c58
Please let me know if this is something you would even be intereted in. I am certain that we could find a way to pick the cake up as well. My future hubby loves to drive!
Thanks again for the great reply. Your cake takes my breath away!
Dawm
Tom December 4, 2010 (6:05 pm)
Beautiful cake!
I help run a venue in Birmingham AL. Most brides still want to keep the top tier of their cake but if you plan to keep it a year, you must store it properly. These are the instructions we just started to share with them.
First, pre-freeze it for a few hours once it arrives home. This makes it much easier to wrap. Second wrap it in plastic wrap and keep as much air out as possible. Third wrap it in foil. Finally put it into something that is air tight like tupper ware.
Of course a year is a long time, but if you want to even attempt to eat it (without tasting like stale refrigerator water) you must store it properly
Western “Branded” Birthday Cake with Horseshoes & Barbed Wire « 2bluedogs’ blog September 24, 2011 (9:07 pm)
[…] Also, check out my horseshoe, western themed wedding cake, click here! […]