Making a Lego Cake

Let me start this post by saying I am not an expert by any means and this would be my first time ever working with fondant. That said, I found it to be quite relaxing and fun. Here is my first cake I have made with marshmallow fondant.

I started by making my marshmallow fondant a few days before I made my cake (since it needs 24 hours to harden). I've read that fondant will keep for 2 months if properly stored.

The day before the party, I decided to make my lego figurine. Since, I hadn't ever worked with fondant, I had no idea how long it would take.

I took a basic lego mini-figure as my guide for proportion.

I used rice krispy treats to shape the lego figure.

Next, I covered the individual pieces before I assembled them. You need to cover the rice krispy with frosting in order to get the fondant to stick to it.

The day of the party, I covered my cake. Since you cannot refrigerate fondant after covering the cake due to condensation, you cannot make the cake too early. I've read that fondant will keep for 3 days once covered, but I wanted the cake to be as fresh as possible so I woke up early the day of the party to cover my cakes.

I dusted my counters and took out my fondant. Sorry for the poor images, it was too dark outside to get natural light so I had to rely on my horrible kitchen light.

Roll out your fondant. Since I am a newbie, I had no idea how thick to roll my fondant out. I bought a new roller and roller rings. The rings enabled me to know exactly how thick to roll the fondant out. It was well worth the price.

Next came time to covering my cake. I had one layer of chocolate and one layer of white cake with cream cheese frosting in between. I had prepared the cake the day before, leveling it, and covering it with a crumb coat.

Lay the fondant over the cake.

Use your hands to guide around the cake, removing any wrinkles that form. Use a fondant smoother to get the fondant extra smooth.

Cut around the edge of the cake with a butter knife.

Tuck the ends under the cake.

Here's my final product. I baked a square cake to make the lego pieces. The top was made with mini-oreos. I would have taken pictures of this process, but it was such a sticky mess, I didn't want to stop to take pictures in between. Time-wise, it took me about 1.5 hours to make the lego figurine, about 2 hours to cover all the lego squares (they were the worse to cover), and another 2 hours to cover the cake, make the details, lettering, and to assemble the final product.

I don't know much about the construction, but after watching a few cake challenges on HGTV, I decided I may need some support so each lego square was supported with a piece of cardboard and wooden dowels underneath. There was also a center wooden dowel through the lego piece so there would no be shifting. We wouldn't want those lego blocks to slide off as the birthday boy was making a wish, now would we?

The Lego man had a cross dowel to support both arms and a center dowel to hold up the head and torso. I decided to add a number 7 since E. was turning 7 and for the first time, he didn't want a "7" candle, but he actually wanted 7 individual candles.

Right before the birthday, I added his name for a personal touch. I used letter fondant cutters to make the letters. The best gift ever was to see E.'s face when he saw the cake. That face was just priceless and it made the hours of work all worth it.