Created Creatively: Sharks attack!

I've never really been a big NRL supporter.

As a child, I went along to football games to spend time with my dad. He supported the Tigers, so I naturally followed in his footsteps. In my teenage years, I went to games as a way to spend more time with a boy that I liked, pretending to understand the game, trying to cleverly hide the fact that I had absolutely no clue who the players were, what their numbers meant, and even what the rules were.

I've since grown up and have remained fairly unattached to most things NRL related (including the rules)... Except if it has to do with baking. For example, last year, purely as an excuse to bake something, I made these cupcakes for the State of Origin:

I've since recently made a Sharks themed cake for a boy who loves NRL, and supports the Cronulla Sharks. It may or may not be the 4th team he's supported in the last 18 months, but it was still his current passion and I was still pleased to design and make a cake for him.

Knowing what my skill range currently is (which does not include 3D footballs or life-size jerseys), I searched the internets for ideas, and found a few that I really liked. Mixing bits of them all together, I'd decided to make a round cake, with the team logo on top, matching stripes down the sides, and exploding stars bursting out of it... somehow.

Tracking down an edible logo was first on my to-do-list. I knew once I had that, the planning for the rest of the cake would be easier - I could match fondant colours to the logo, buy the ingredients, and begin the process of creating. Thankfully, my local cake shop had just one left, and reserved it for me (it helps to now be on a name-to-name basis with most staff members because I'm likely contributing to a big portion of their wages).

Though time consuming, I convinced myself that the idea of this cake was going to be simple: A white base, blue & black stripes, coloured balls around the bottom, and stars stuck onto wire.

With royal icing, I added birthday wishes, and also outlined the Sharks logo to (well, it was my intention to) make the top look neater.

Then, in one of those lightbulb moments, I remembered that I had a shark cutter that I'd bought a little while ago to make shark biscuits for a friend who loves sharks! I used it to make a fondant shark, which I stuck a wire into also.

Since I'd ran out of room on the cake board to write the birthday boy's name, the shark seemed perfect for it. The final touch was simply sticking the stars and shark into the cake, and adding "Gallen 13". This was requested (not just me adding useless information), I assume because it's a favourite player/number? I don't know - I have no idea about NRL, remember! So, I made a mini fondant jersey, used more royal icing to add said name & number, and stuck it right onto the front of the cake.

And it was finished! :)