Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Bikini Cake

Every February for the past 10 years, my sister has hosted a pre-Valentine's Day girls night out celebration and panty exchange called Pink Panty Party.  Each attendee brings a NEW wrapped pair of panties (the more outrageous, the better and funnier) for a gift exchange.  No one is actually taking off their panties (not at the party anyway - wink, wink).  Well, the husbands completely embrace this girls night out get-together and hope their lovely wives will later "model" the newly acquired undies.  Just sayin' people... #loveisintheair.



Unfortunately, I missed the festivities last year due to a pesky case influenza which turned into an even peskier case of pneumonia.  So much for that flu shot!  I didn't figure the ladies would appreciate me coughing up a lung on their new panties last year so I stayed home with my nebulizer.  

So, that brings us to this year's party...I went all out and made a Bikini Cake that looks like a pink panty and bra set.  




Some of you may know that I have a "thing" for making special cakes.  I love baking and it's a hobby that I've enjoyed for many years.  I've come a long way since I first started baking.  The first time I made a cake all by myself at the ripe age of 11 years old, I thought "egg whites" meant the shell.  Seriously!  So, yes, I crunched up the egg shell and put it in the cake.  It was quite crunchy to say the least.  I never made that mistake again!  I've teamed up with my sister on a few occasions as well.  I have fond memories of assisting her with a multi-tiered luau party cake (while drinking margaritas) for my niece's 8th birthday.  My husband was supervising us (haha!) and making margaritas.  It's a miracle that cake turned out so well in our tipsy-turvy state.

So, back to my Bikini Cake.  A friend made a similar cake years ago for a coworker's lingerie shower and I thought it was so cute. I knew it would be perfect for our little celebration.  I scoured the internet and Pinterest for examples and got a plan together hoping to use a specialty cake tee-shirt shaped pan I already had on hand.   



Can you believe this is how my cake started out?  Using one boxed cake mix, I poured a little bit of batter into 2 small round dishes which would eventually become the "boobs" for the woman's torso.  Here are the boob cakes before being attached.  The inset photo shows the cups I used for baking.
  

I poured the remaining cake batter in the tee-shirt pan.  I baked the tee-shirt cake first because it would take longer than the small cups.  After everything finished baking, I allowed the cakes to cool completely.  Using a bread knife, I carved the waist of the torso in slightly to give it a more feminine curve.



I then "attached" the boob cakes to the torso using frosting.  I continued with a crumb coat of icing on the entire cake including the boobs.  I placed cake in freezer so everything would set.  I later added a more substantial layer of icing.  I placed cake in the freezer again.




This was my first time to ever use fondant so I was a bit nervous about this step.  The next morning I rolled out the ivory colored fondant to cover the entire cake which simulates the "skin" for the body.  I smoothed it out and trimmed around the edges.  I had a few areas that looked slightly cracked but overall I think I did pretty good for a fondant first timer.



I cut out a template for the undies and bra using regular printer paper.  I placed templates on cake and used a toothpick to trace little dots around edge of pattern.  




For the bra template, I only traced the front of bra and the straps.  I piped frosting along the side and underside of the natural shape of the "boobs" but left a little "cleavage" at the front.



I piped pink frosting for bra/panty set using a #16 star tip.  



I also embellished the bra and panties using edible heart candies and pearlized candies (which look like beads).  





For the border, I piped same color pink frosting using a #12 round tip to make dots.  I alternated red and white sixlet candies all around border on each dot.



This cake would be perfect for other celebrations too:
  • a lingerie shower
  • a pool party (make it look for like a swim suit)
  • a swim team party
  • a tropic or luau themed engagement party or a couples shower (make one cake a bikini swim suit for woman, make another cake as swim trunks for the man)
  • a bachelor party
  • a bachelorette party
  • a bachelor birthday party
No matter what kind of celebration you are planning, make it special by ordering (or creating) a unique cake.  



This type of cake would cost a lot of money if purchased in a bakery.  I saved myself some cash and it was a fun, creative adventure!



Happy Baking!