The Man From Del Monte Says YES!!! :) (with a bit of a tutorial)

Well, where do I start with this one?!?

Aside from the fact that this cake was going to be a joy to paint and totally out of the ordinary (which I love), I had the additional  pleasure of actually making it to celebrate the birthday of the retired MD of Del Monte, AKA, The Man From Del Monte!!!

Seriously, how cool is that?!

Made from 7 x 8" Vanilla Sponges with a yummy jam filling and standing at approximately 30cm tall it was a brute of a tin of Fruit Cocktail!

If you're a follower of my blogs then may I also draw your attention to the 2nd use of my newly favourite font as previously mentioned here.  Isn't it smart? :D

 It's totally hand painted and for once I managed to remember to take some snaps along the way so I've put together a little tutorial for anyone that might be interested :)  

So, after purchasing the actual can I was to copy from my local supermarket (which I later consumed as a midnight snack) I scanned in the label and printed out an enlarged version to fit the cake.   

After cutting out the main shapes of the image and creating a rough stencil I secured it in place with painters tape and lightly painted the shapes in with the corresponding colours watered down heavily with vodka (any white alcohol will do, I use vodka as I can take it or leave it, Gin on the other hand wouldn't stay in the confines of the cakery for long!)...

Once the main shapes were on the cake and I'd removed my stencil I set about filling the shapes with colour, using more vodka for lighter areas and less for the stronger colours.  Food colours are really lovely to paint with and can quite easily be lifted back off with a brush and pure vodka if you make a mistake...

I slowly but surely worked my way through the fruit with a crude paint job at first but adding shadows and highlights to define the shapes bit by bit creating the still life on the can...

At this point I got a bit impatient to see how the fruit would look in the end and started filling in the green background underneath... just to get the idea...

 

I don't know how other cake decorators do this, but this is the method that I've kind of muddled together over the years.  I use this when I need to paint lettering, but in reverse if that makes sense, I make a reverse stencil of the lettering, in this case the white writing of the Del Monte logo.  I used the one from my original stencil so that it's the perfect size for the already faintly marked out area.  

So, to do this you need to create a border around the lettering you want to paint (mine was handily bordered by the shape of the logo but if it's not then I find drawing a shape around as a border helps to keep your head from getting confused while cutting), and cut (with a sharp scalpel) little runners that connect each letter to the border, do this all the way around and on the ends to make sure the letters are secure in their space.  Then just scalpel out the bits you don't need.  You need to be really careful not to rip any of your runners whilst cutting them so a really sharp (new bladed) scalpel is highly recommended to take it delicately.

Then you should be left with something along these lines... (if you do have a rip it can be doctored with a miniscule bit of sticky tape and a steady hand)

Using painters tape again (you can use masking tape but painters tape holds on to the cake for longer) I secured it in place and as quickly and carefully as possible marked around each letter with red colouring...

Annoyingly I forgot about the 'Quality' part of the logo while painting in the markings... but it was fixed with a bit of vodka... we all make mistakes!

Then get the colour in, using a tiny brush around the letters to define them properly...

Back to the fruit... and then the next lettering... in an attempt to alternate the tasks and keep me on my toes in the face of the daunting paint job...

Using exactly the same reverse stencil method as the Del Monte logo I marked out the last of the lettering, removed the stencil and completed each letter before filling in all the negative areas with colour...

Nearly finished, the last of the colour is added avoiding the highlights of the words 'Del Monte' in yellow and black...

The last finishing touches included painting the white lettering with white food colour to emphasis the white, I thought it looked a bit unfinished with the white of the icing showing through when the rest of the cake was painted and it definitely made all the difference in my eyes.

As well as that I coated the top and edges of the can with edible silver paint and (using my new favourite font) hand painted the message...

According to a comment on the facebook page, The Man From Del Monte said...

"The man from Del Monte - he said YES. 

Best cake he'd ever had and very reluctant to cut into it."

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY 'MAN FROM DEL MONTE'!!!!