Step-by-Step Cake Carving Tutorial

I've been asked by many people to post a step-by-step tutorial on how I carve a cake. So, today's post will be step-by-step pictures on a very interesting cake order.

The order requested was for "One Male Brown Butt". It seems that this was a joke gift for an office going away party.... I really don't mean to offend, this is for fun - so please don't scroll down further if you don't want to read anymore.

Step 1: The cake was Chocolate Velvet Cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttecream. Depending on the type of cake, I usually put the wrapped cake in the freezer prior to carving so that it is as solid as possible to carve.

Next, you need to get a clear picture in your head of the cake, if the images have not been provided by the client. I dared to google "Male Bum".... I didn't open any of the images, but the thumbnails were quite sufficient :-)Step 2: Make sure you have a very good cake cutting knife. I have a larger one and a smaller one to carve the finer details.

I started with a major part of the design, the crack, and started to cut. Then I just began carving - you have to just go for it. You can't stare or think too long. Carve small pieces and stand back regularly to look at the cake from different angles - there is no "undo".
For my cakes, I try to add in all the fine details in the carving, instead of leaving it to buttercream or fondant. Here are the dimples in the butt.Step 3: Cover the carved cake in Buttercream. I usually put this in the fridge until the buttcream cream hardens a little bit. Then I take it out from the fridge and smooth out the buttercream as much as possible. For this design, I had to smooth out using my hands - picture that! :-)Step 4: I dyed my fondant to the proper shade of brown - make sure you ask specifics from your client to ensure you meet their expectations. They will usually provide a photo or color palette. I rolled out the fondant and covered the cake. Smooth your hands over the curves of the cake (now that was funny...) and cut off the excess fondant.
Step 5: Prepare additional details for your cake. For this cake, I created something that looked like the top of jeans with a belt out of sugarpaste.And Voila! The final cake - One Male Brown Butt. Hope you enjoyed this lighthearted tutorial on how to carve a cake.