Tangled Cake

by Meg Murphy
(New Bedford, MA)

For this Tangled cake, I started off making the tower which was made out of rice crispy treats. I used a large container that I use for drinks and coated it with Crisco. Then added the rice treats and compacted it as much as I could then too a much narrower glass and did the same thing. Once slightly cooled I placed the two parts on top of each other and pressed them together forming the base of the tower.

For the top part I again used things in the cabinets, i.e. drinking glass, shot glass and a martini glass. These items gave me the shapes I needed. Trimming along the way to get the desired shape. I also used a wooden dowel to hold the parts together.

After covering the tower with butter cream I rolled out a sheet of homemade MMF. I covered each part of the tower separately for an even cover, taking advantage of the overlapping seams on the bottom part of the tower (resembled a large crack).

Also using the back of a butter knife I made an indentation resembling a large area of chipped concrete where the brick is exposed. This area is where I used a fondant tool to draw lines to look like bricks.

The roof tiles was the toughest part of all. After mixing two different colors of fondant I cut out all the tiles first then started to layer the tiles side by side starting with the bottom on the roof line using a dab of water now and again to make things stick and trimming to make things fit. The wooden pieces once again are MMF rolled out and trimmed into strips, detail was added for the wood grain look applied with a small dab of water to help it stick and then two small nail holes added after it was applied.

Simple windows were made from the same fondant as the wood. The same wood-like detail was added to the side window to look like shutters. Once the Tower was placed on to the Tangled cake, the vine detail was added along with flower. Both were made out of butter cream frosting.

The cake part was made with a large 16-in pan and a 10-in cake pan. I put the 10-in cake on top of the large cake and made it off-centered to allow room for the fondant stream, which was added after the crumb coat but before I covered it with frosting. I trimmed off some of the top cake so it could look more like the side of a hill. Covered it with green frosting.

Now at this point you add the details as you seem fit: rocks, trees, flowers. And most importantly is to step back when adding your details to make sure you don't over do it. Enjoy and have fun!