Body sculpting...

I suppose I am lucky to be married to someone who is occasionally obsessed with exercise and fitness. He is a fountain of wisdom and knowledge, especially when it comes to building muscle, losing weight, eating right, and maintaining (or achieving) a healthy figure.

One of these days, I should actually listen to him...

A few months ago, I was asked if I'd be able to make a 'muscle arm cake' for a 21st birthday.

Using Husband's knowledge of body building, and my knowledge of cakes and fondant (and my excellent Google search experience), I made this cake for a friend's nephew's 21st.

Not having sculpted many cakes, I figured it was going to be tricky. I started by drawing an outline of what I needed to do, big (and small) enough to fit neatly on the cake board I had:

Using the cut out sketch, I shaped and trimmed the various cakes I'd made, and assembled them as best as I could on the board- looking as close to a muscle arm as possible- and covered them all in chocolate buttercream. The inside of the arm crevices were the trickiest, but we got there in the end!

Next, I had my skin coloured fondant (using my caramel colour that I seem to use for almost everything), rolled it out, and covered the cake.

After smoothing it out and pushing it into those tricky crevices, I trimmed the bottom and tidied up the board. The hardest part was done! ... Or was it.

I then needed to make a dumbbell for the arm to be holding (or it would be quite a strange looking cake otherwise!). This part was easiest, as I just needed to cover a small round cake in black fondant. There was a lot of guesswork for how the end little piece would look, though. It was made completely out of fondant and covered in edible silver paint. Of course, I used props from our home gym to help inspire me.

I can't remember exactly what I used to hold it up. I think it was a cling wrap roll, cut to size, that I got Husband to cut for me, considering my last experience. And to match the colour of an actual dumbbell bar thingy, it was covered it in duct tape.

Because I'm all about that class, 'bout that class.

The downside of Husband's incredible body building and exercise knowledge, is that he told me that my cake was all out of proportion- that the forearm was too big, and the bicep not prominent enough.

 Pfft... What would he know ;)

Happy birthday Sina!