The Sugar Buddha Cake

I'm super excited to tell you all about last weeks Sugar Buddha Cake!

I had so much fun making this one.

The customer was brilliantly specific with their order.  They wanted a square vanilla and jam sponge with a golden laughing Buddha and a bottle of red saying Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad, 60 Not Out!  

So, I set about fashioning a Buddha out of sugar, which I have endearingly named The Sugar Buddha.  

And this is how I did it...

Using white fondant icing mixed with a little CMC (a powder that allows fondant to have more elasticity and set harder) I modelled him starting with his magnificent belly...

...then I added his legs, creating his feet and toes along the way, then covered them to create his lounge pants...

...next I modelled his breasts (for want of a better word) and his arms and hands which started off looking like this...

...again I added more fondant with CMC to create a lovely robe to cover some of his modest breasts and his arms, and then roughly rolled out a ball for his head...

...with one of my faithful modelling tools I sculpted his fabulous laughing mouth, nose and eyes and attached his brilliantly over sized ear lobes...

...next, with black food colouring I painted in all the dark areas and details...

...and finally I sprayed him using the amazingly effective PME Edible Lustre Spray and left him to dry...

We became quite attached during this process and I was sorry to see him go.  He sat on my side until I was ready for him to be stationed on the cake and every time he caught my eye his expression made me chuckle!

Anyhoo, this cake isn't all about Buddha (although that was my favourite part) I also created a tiny little bottle of wine and hand painted 'Pinot Noir 2012' on the label....

All that was left was the golden lettering...