Cakes: Doc Marten Birthday Cake

It's been a very cakey couple of weeks.  Yesterday was Cake Club, and the Saturday before that I made the cake for my niece's 18th birthday party.  She wanted it to be in the shape of a pair of sparkly Doc Marten boots.  We decided on one vanilla sponge boot and one chocolate sponge boot.  I had most of a very hot Saturday to do the cake, and it was going to be driven from Loughborough to Chester for the party, so it had to be pretty sturdy.

The first thing I did was nearly kill myself lugging the portable air-conditioning unit down from the bedroom to the kitchen. It weighs a ton and the stairs go round a corner and halfway down I was really regretting it but had no option but to continue in my foolhardy undertaking.  Eventually the unit and I made it downstairs and I was so glad I bothered with it, as the kitchen would have been horribly hot and icing-melty otherwise.

I'd bought the sponges ready-made as time was short, and I can't always rely on my baking to do what I want it to! First I layered the sponges with buttercream - alternate layers of strawberry and chocolate in the vanilla cake, and chocolate fudge filling in the chocolate cake.  Then I carved the cakes into boot shapes, and put them in the fridge to rest, while I dashed into town for some forgotten supplies.

Next job was to add a layer of buttercream to the outside of the cakes, and cover them in red fondant icing.  I followed the pattern of a real pair of Doc Martens so the seams were in the right places.

At this stage I started to worry.  The boots were HUGE and looked like massive clod-hoppers and not at all Doc Marten-ish.  I added another section of fondant to the top of the boots to give them more height, and this helped a bit with the proportions.  I had to pack the tops with cling film while the fondant set.

I cut out holes for the laces, and - very carefully - threaded some sparkly ribbon through the holes:

Then I added an awful lot of edible glitter, and put the boots on a cake board which I'd covered with purple fondant icing and shimmer dust:

I also outlined the lace eyelets in black, but forgot to take a picture at that stage.  If I get one of the photos of the cake from the party I'll add that in here some time - but the picture above gives you a good idea of the finished thing.

To give you an idea of the size, the cake board is 15 inches across.  The birthday girl was happy with her cake, and I have learned that edible glitter covers a multitude of sins.