Dad's challenge:
As a lift engineer my Dad requested a cake with stairs and a banister, and a stair lift. He also wanted a little model of himself repairing the lift. Personally the last thing I would want is a cake that reminds me of work but this was his challenge.
Challenge accepted!
From my experience (or should I say Mr Chris' experience) carving the spiral cake for Mr Chris' Dad, I know it is important to have the right type of sponge. The sponge for the spiral cake was a little tricky to carve as it was very light and fluffy, and chunks would crumble away during the carving.
This time I did a bit of research and found some good carving tips from Lindy's Cakes. Following the tips I made a madeira sponge using a square cake tin as I thought it would make it easier to cut out the stairs. FYI, Lindy's Cakes also provides a handy chart to calculate recipe quantities for different size and shaped cake tins.
I didn't freeze the cake as Lindy's tips suggest because it wouldn't fit in my freezer, but Mr Chris tells me it was indeed easier to carve (yes, I chickened out). The unusual shape made it harder to cover with fondant but I took it slow, working from top to bottom and smoothing small sections at a time. It did tear in a couple of weak spots around the stairs, but these were covered with the stair lift so I wasn't too bothered.
As for modelling my Dad, this was not a problem because I've done it before. I remember as a child making a similar model out of plasticine for Father's day, the only difference now is the belly has got a little bigger :D
Some quotes from my Dad:
"I've got more grey hair then that"
"What model stair lift is that then?"
"My tool box isn't red"
Overall I think he was pretty chuffed with it.
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