National Spelling Bee Cake

The winning word from the Scripps National Spelling Bee was big news this year because it happened to be “knaidel” as in matzah ball fame.  The clip of Arvind Mahankali winning this years big prize was all over the media, so I’m sure you have seen it.  He even appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  So when his teacher asked me to make him a special cake his class, I couldn’t refuse.  I decorated the outside of the cake in a hexagon pattern to match the spelling bee stage background.

I have been getting better at modeling my gum paste figures (thanks to Anne Heap’s class on Craftsy) and knew I wanted to make a little Arvind.  Then I thought it would be cute if he was sitting on a knaidel in a big bowl of chicken soup.  I made an edible bowl and spoon out of gum paste and filled the bowl with fondant knaidels and carrots.  Then I filled the bowl with consomme colored piping gel to look like chicken broth.  It’s good that it was all cake, because Arvind is a vegetarian and can’t actually eat official chicken soup.

My next thought was how to incorporate the actual word?  How about having little gum paste Arvind in his famous thinking pose with the winning word in a thought bubble! Awesomeness ensued.  I even replicated the Scripps Spelling Bee logo, I wonder who ate that!

Arvind, his teachers, and his class loved the cake! Here he is with the cake.  Apparently, he even took himself home! Congratulations on your big win!