Hiya! I'm so excited about how buttercakes is doing these days! Business is really picking up. You can see my new logo (duh, at the top of the page!) and my business cards are going to be arriving this week!!! YAY!!! I have an awesome advertisement plan. Sometime in the next few weeks, I am going to make quite a few little 6-inch cakes with my logo on them (printed with edible ink on edible paper) and an adorable little sugar flower (keeping it simple). Then I will take the (free) cakes to local businesses and give them some business cards as well. Most of the places I plan on taking them are places that I am familiar with and there are people that I know who work there. I'm not even gonna lie, I have worked at most of these places:

• Volkert (engineering firm where the hubby works)
• Sylvan (where I currently work)
• Duke Animal Clinic (previous employer)
• Hurricane Brewery (friend's restaurant)
• Lagniappe (just because I love that magazine)
• Wintzell's (another former employer)
• Bridal Shops (might as well, right?)
• Environmental Studies Center (yet another former employer)
• 92 Zew (the BEST radio station in Mobile, AL!!!)

If you live in Mobile, AL and would like your business added to that list, please feel free to leave a comment.  Oh I really hope this cake biz turns out to be a success!  I just love decorating cakes!!!

Now, without further adieu, I present to you the Houndstooth Fedora!!!

I just learned (like 2 days ago) that this style of hat is called a Fedora.  See, here in Alabama, a houndstooth fedora is also known as the "Bear Bryant Hat."  Bear Bryant was apparently the best coach in University of Alabama history (???), but not only am I not a Bama fan, I don't really pay much attention to sports in general. 

"Bear" Bryant

This cake is the topper to an Alabama fan's grooms cake.  It was tons of fun to make.  This was the first cake I've ever truly carved and the first cake I used edible images on (more on those later).

Before we get going with the tutorial, I have to give credit to Laura Crownover for the inspiration.  I would also like to thank Stephanie and Jay (the newlyweds) for giving me the opportunity to make your grooms cake.  It was my pleasure!!!

Now, let's get down to business and talk about how YOU can make this Fedora cake!

Lucky for me, I found the hubby's old grandpa fedora in the hall closet and was able to use it as a model.  That's pretty much the only way I was able to carve so much detail in the cake.  I wanted it to be the exact size as well.

The hat was carved out of a 3-layer 9-inch chocolate and peanut butter cake.

Before and after carving, I put the cake in the fridge to firm up.

Then I covered the cake with a very thin layer of chocolate buttercream to cover up any imperfections and to give the fondant something to stick to.

Silly me!  I forgot to get a picture of the hat with just white fondant on it.  Forgive me, it was late (and by late, I mean 5pm...that's when my brain shuts down for the evening).

I let the fondant set up overnight, because I tends to settle and sometimes the insides of the cake want to squeeze out and cause some problems for me a few hours afterwards, so I wanted to wait and see if that would happen as well.

The next day, I began the grueling process of covering the cake with houndstooth edible images.  These were a bit pricey ($45 for 12 sheets).  I used 5 out of the 12 sheets for this cake.  But it really gave a much more realistic look to the hat than painting would have.  It was worth it.

There are a few important things to consider when you use edible images:

1. Plan ahead!  Know where you are going to put each piece because you can't take it off after it has been placed on.
2. Don't use too much water to affix the image to the cake.  See the picture below for an example of why.
3. Be careful of seams.  This was the hardest part for me, because I didn't follow my own rule (#1). Again, see one of the pictures below.
4. The images show up at your doorstep in a foil bag.  Keep them sealed up in that bag and only take one sheet out at a time.  I learned this the hard way.  I left half of a sheet out to go run an errand and when I came back, the humidity had gotten to the images and I couldn't take them off of the sheet.  That was a wasted half sheet.

A fedora has 2 rims.  I handled these one at a time and worked my way out.  First was the rim closest to the head part (I hope that made sense???).  I rolled out some fondant and cut it into strips and placed them around the cake.  Its okay if your seams don't come together perfectly.  The images will cover that up.

Next, cover that rim with more houndstooth, but in a different direction from the rest of the hat.

Then I had to add the feather.  It just wouldn't be a Bear Bryant hat without the red feather.

Then I used gumpaste to make the outer rim.  I chose gumpaste because it will set up faster and will hold its shape much better than fondant.  I cut it into strips and attached them to the bottom with a tiny bit of water.  Then I put paper towels underneath to give it shape.  With a fedora, you want the back to kind of curl up and the front to be flat.

After that set up overnight, I finished the entire thing by putting houndstooth on the outer rim.  This should go in another direction.

Here is a picture of the hat on top of the chocolate and peanut butter grooms cake.  Because the cake was brown and the hat was black and white, I trimmed the cake tiers with black ribbon to pull it all together.  What do you think?

With love, Ev