A friend asked me to make the groom's cake for her wedding. Her fiance was a total Mr. Fix-It around the house, and their running joke was, "Oh, That Josh can do it." She wanted me to make a toolbox with "That Josh" written on it some where.
I started with the base. I covered it in gray fondant. When it was covered, it looked too plain. So, I looked through all of the impression mats that I had, and the brick pattern that was not girly. I went with it. I then took ribbon and used hot glue to attach it around the edges.
For those of you that have never covered a board, here are some directions. Roll out your fondant evenly. Lay it on top of your board. Lay your impression mat over the board. And then roll your roller over the impression mat. You can use a regular rolling pin to do this, but the mat may slip. I prefer to use a roller with a handle so that I can use the other hand to hold the mat in place. If your mat doesn't cover the whole area just be sure to line up the pattern correctly.
Next, I baked my cake. I used a black velvet cake recipe that I found on pinterest. I left out the black dye because I din't want to have some type of black mouth fiasco at the wedding. The cake came out a light brown color. I only had 11x15 plans. I made three layers, and I cut them each down to 8x14, leveled them, and added supports. For supports, you can use wooden dowels, but I use large smoothie straws. They are easier to cut and work just as good. In between each layer, I piped a thick layer of airless butter cream. around the top edge of the bottom layer to make a barrier. I them spooned and spread chocolate pudding in the middle of the barrier. I then placed the second layer on top and repeated the process. Last, I placed the top layer on the top. I let it sit for a while so the cakes would settle. After about a half hour, I dirty iced my cake and set it to the side.
Finally, it was tool time. I decided to model all of the parts of the tool parts that would be silver in white and spray them silver with my airbrush. If you don't have one, you can just mix some black dye into your white and make gray. I sprayed the parts silver and set them to the side to dry. I brought my cake back over, and covered it in another coat of icing, and sprayed it red. When it had dried for a few minutes I moved it to the cake board. I had to use my cake lifter to help me. Be careful to touch the cake as little as possible, but if there are any mess ups at the bottom it will be covered. When the cake was in place, I went back to working on the tools. For the rest of the fondant I used colored fondant. I did not use the airbrush. I simply pulled tools out of the tool drawer to help me mold the fondant into tools and nails. I made the "To Do List" out of rolled white fondant and wrote on it with edible markers. I then layed it on my fondant forms in a way that it would dry like a wrinkled piece of paper. I laid all of the tools on the board in front of the box and added accents to the tool box. I added a logo to the top of the box and added the message to that. At that point I was done, but kept passing back and decided I needed some type of border. That is when I came up with the idea for the white rope, garden hose, and extension cord. It really finished the cake.
What I used:
Black Velvet Cake (without the black dye) http://pinterest.com/pin/256634878736348641/
Airless Butter Cream http://cakecentral.com/recipe/sugarshacks-buttercream-for-a-6qt-mixer
Chocolate Pudding (Grocery - you can use pudding cups if your cake is small)
Satin Ice Fondant http://www.fondantsource.com/saicefo.html
3/8 inch ribbon (Craft Store)
Brick Impression Mat http://www.countrykitchensa.com/shop/cake-decorating-supplies/country-kitchen-texture-sheet-assortment/38/527/1327/632238/
Supports (Bed, Bath, and Beyond)
