Camp-out Cake

It's been a while since I made a cake, but this weekend offered a perfect opportunity!  That's right, the Superkid had another birthday, which meant Mrs. Jeanonathon (What? You didn't know J and I have a celebrity name?  Well, to this kid, we must be a super-couple!  Or just have really long, confusing names...) had a cake to decorate!  (See previous cakes for his sixth birthday here and fifth birthday here)

The Kid loves to camp, and a February birthday doesn't really lend itself to a backyard camp-out that he might have preferred.  Luckily, his momma put together an amazing indoor camp-out complete with s'mores in the fireplace and a tent set up in the family room for a sleepover!  Last week, he showed me a drawing of what he had in mind for his cake, which included a red tent, trees, and the family car (which is typically parked next to the tent when they go camping), so I took that as my order!

As you can see, I only managed part of the order.  See, if you clicked back to the sixth birthday cake, you know that I sometimes bake too much cake to meet the vision.  I'd promised Becky I would reign it in this time and not send all of the guests home with their own month supply of birthday cake.  I found a great formula online for the size of cake you should bake (area of the cake divided by area of the slice equals the number of people served), and it turns out, you don't really need nearly as much cake as you'd think! Unfortunately, a smaller cake meant less room for trees and cars, so I focused on the tent and a smaller forest.

I feel sort of iffy about the tent; I rolled the fondant too thin, and could have put more thought into the rolls at the end.  The trees, on the other hand, turned out better than I'd expected.  Both the trunks and the treetops are a mix of fondant and gumpaste, held together on bamboo skewers.  These aren't typically a great combo for kids, except for the kids at this party.  I glanced over at one point to see them eating the trees like lollipops.  Apparently they tasted a little like bubblegum?

The best part?  All of the guests at the party got a slice after presents were opened, and there was just enough for the Kid, his family, and his sleepover pal to have a piece for breakfast.  Once the party was officially over, so was the cake.  I'll be using that formula again!