Decorated Cake Instructions

Supplies:

• plastic 2 liter soda bottle caps
• larger apple juice or fruit juice plastic caps
• tacky glue
• Duncan Easy Texture or Duncan Snow Accents (found at craft store, used to decorate tops of village houses to give the illusion of snow-covered buildings)
• cotton swab or plastic knife
• wax paper
• beads, crayons, acrylic paints, dimensional paints, eyeshadows to decorate

1. Wash out plastic tops.  Let dry.
2. Pour tacky glue onto a paper plate.  Dip the bottom ridge of the soda cap into the glue.  Press soda cap to apple juice cap.  This will make a graduated double layer cake. Let dry on wax paper.
3. With cotton swab or plastic knife, spread a layer of the Snow Accents over the sides and top of the soda cap.  You can do this to just a single bottle top for a single layer cake.  You just need to spread enough Snow Accents to cover the ridges of the soda cap. Let dry on wax paper.  This takes about 4 hours minimally to be sure it’s dry.
4. Once the caps are dry, you may need to touch up the Snow Accents to cover any missed places.  Again, let dry.

Variation 1 - Spread some tacky glue on the top of the cake and dip the cake top in beads.  Red beads gives the appearance of a strawberry/cherry covered cake.  Small white iridescent beads gives a beautiful elegant wedding cake appearance.  You can layer the beads on the lower graduated layer as well.

Variation 2 - Mix one part brown acrylic paint to three parts ivory or white acrylic paint.  Paint the cake.  Will look like chocolate icing.  Tap some baking soda or corn starch on the top to give the appearance of powdered sugar.  You can use a toothpick and ‘drizzle’ the paint mixture over the sides to give the appearance of chocolate sauce.

Variation 3 - Dip the bottom ridge of the cap in tacky glue and dip into sand.  This will give the appearance of a crumb or graham cracker crumb crust.

Variation 4 - Decorate with a cake decorator tip and white latex paintable caulk.  This technique gives the appearance of a beautifully decorated birthday or wedding cake.  This must dry for approximately 24 hours.  You can then decorate with acrylic paints or even powder eyeshadows in brown or pink.

Variation 5 - Sharpen a brown and/or white crayon.  The shavings will look like dark chocolate and white chocolate shavings.  Spread some tacky glue on top of the cake and gently press in the crayon shavings.

Variation 6 - Using long beads in primary colors and inserting a small piece of ballager thread (used in needle point or cross-stitch) for the wick makes the perfect candle. You can also hammer some of the beads between a piece of paper and a paper plate crushing the beads to make  sprinkles for some of the cakes. Submitted by Ami (addflower@bigfoot.com).

Variation 7 - Use latex caulk for "plain" frosting.  Snow Tex, snow covering for winter houses gives the appearance of coconut (or stucco!).  Add a single drop of red food color it turned a wonderful shade of pink! Submitted by Ami (addflower@bigfoot.com).

Variation 8 - Wood putty, try the brand called Famowood, a water based wood filler... natural color or a darker color will make a very convincing mocha frosting! Submitted by Ami (addflower@bigfoot.com).

Tips:

Tip -  The top of the container for the toy trinkets out of the gumball machine will make a great cake dome.  Just glue a bead on the top for a handle.

Tip - Glue clear tri-beads halfway sticking out from the cake to give the appearance of a beautiful glass plate.

Tip - Spray paint posterboard gold and cut in a circle shape slightly larger than the cake for a platter.

Tip - Cover posterboard with aluminum foil.  Cut in a circle shape slightly larger than the cake for a shiny platter.