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For Donna’s 60th birthday, she was planning a big celebration and the cake needed to be fabulous. She told me that she loves her designer handbag, as well as expensive jewelry and gorgeous makeup. I was able to incorporate all her favorite things into one cake! This was my first handbag cake. I can’t believe I was never asked to make one before! When I was asked to make this one, I was so excited! I stacked a few rectangular sheets of cake and carved them to achieve the right shape. Once it was carved and covered in buttercream, I covered it in white fondant. I then airbrushed the cake with brown and black airbrush color. Normally, to build up the right color using an airbrush, you need to add a few coats of color, allowing the color to dry in between. But for this handbag, I wanted an uneven almost splotchy look to mimic the look of leather. So I just sprayed and sprayed until the cake looked really leathery.
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It was important for me to replicate the logo onto the handbag. Since the design is pretty detailed, it would be difficult and very time consuming to hand paint it. Instead, I bought this stencil from Stencil Planet. To apply the logo to the cake, first I mixed up my paint. I mixed some gold luster dust with some bronze airbrush color. I like this mix as opposed to mixing luster dust with vodka because the paint ends up much thicker and doesn’t usually require more than one coat. Okay, time to paint. I held the stencil up to the side of the cake, dipped a paintbrush into my paint and gently dabbed the color onto the openings in the stencil until each shape and symbol were filled in. I really like how the pattern turned out! With the pattern in place, it was time for the details.
I wanted a realistic looking zipper and I didn’t have a mold; I wonder if they even sell a zipper mold. Anyway, I rolled out a thick strip of fondant and pressed an actual clean plastic zipper (attached to one of my sons tiny sweatshirts) into the fondant. I cut the extra fondant from the sides of the zipper off, and applied the zipper to the cake. I shaped the zipper pull out of fondant, but that part was just done freehand. Then I painted the whole piece with my gold/bronze paint.
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I shaped the handles of the handbag out of some tan colored gumpaste. I made them a few days in advance so they would have time to dry. I made the buckles in advance as well to allow them to harden and keep their shape. I really wanted the handles to be standing up, but I was terrified that they would rip the edges of the cake off during transit, so I just attached them to the sides. After all is said and done, I actually like this look better and I’m glad I made this decision!
The final touches were the cutest part of the cake. I draped scraps of white fondant on top of the exposed cake board to soften the overall look. Then I arranged the handmade fondant makeup and pearls! I painted the pearls with pearl colored airbrush color to get them looking realistic. Donna loved her cake! Happy 60th birthday and many more!