August 16, 2009

TARDIS Cake

It's a TARDIS! It's bigger on the inside! It's two feet tall (quarter scale)! And aside from the lights, everything you see is edible. Click for lots more detail and in-process shots.

I love Dr. Who. Just a few weeks ago my sister-in-law and I waited in line for five hours to get good seats at the Dr. Who panel at Comic-Con. Totally worth it!

Since I would have to be a Time Lord to make a Tardis cake that could actually go anywhere in time and space, I decided to do the next best thing - make a Tardis cake that's bigger on the inside. Or at least appears to be. Like I said, I'm not a Time Lord. I chose to go with the new Tardis interior because, as it is both more organic and more interestingly illuminated than any previous Tardis interior, I thought it would be the most visually effective.

First I had to figure out the best way to create the illusion of a more spacious interior. I tried to consult the internet about optical illusions, but didn't find anything helpful, so I went with old fashioned trial and error. I played around with a lot of different configurations, eventually settling on two convex mirrors arranged at about a 45 degree angle. To get the curve I wanted, I used flexible carnival mirror, glued onto my custom made wood and mat board form.

Next, in order to illuminate the inside of the Tardis and the "Police Box" signs on the outside, I needed to learn at least a little bit about electronics. So I ordered a DIY Electronics Kit from the MakerShed that was really sort of geared for pre-teens, but it was also very helpful. Armed with new-found knowledge of resistors and LEDs, I trolled the internet for the best deals and ordered a total of 385 LEDs in blue, aqua, green, yellow, white, and flashing white. They didn't all make it into the cake, but I did wind up using enough of them that I used seven nine-volt batteries that power them. I embedded these batteries into a plywood base and mounted the mirrors.

With my structure in place, it was time to start making gum paste pieces. The exterior required fifty-two separate pieces of gum paste - two for the panels on each of the four sides plus one inward-facing panel for the side that looked into the interior and three to back the windows on the other three sides, six for each of the four "Police Box" signs (some of which were quite tedious, as I had to painstakingly cut out the words to let the light through), and sixteen for the roof. Later I needed an additional seventy-two pieces of gum paste for the window frames and mullions. I went with a grey-blue marbled effect because I thought it would look more convincing and more interesting than a uniform color field.

To make the interior I started with a gum paste floor with cutouts to let the light through from all the white LEDs embedded in the base. In order to enhance the illusion of interior space and elevate the bottom of the central console sufficiently to make it easily visible through the windows, I gave the floor a serpentine curve, supported by gum paste struts. Then I stuck a layer of rice paper to the top of the gum paste floor and painted it dark grey with food coloring. On top of this I piped grey royal icing expanded steel. It went pretty quickly, because I got a lot of practice making royal icing expanded steel when I was making the Demolition Cake. To give it a nice sheen, I went over it with some silver luster dust.

Now it was time to make the control console. Fortunately, thanks to the mirrors, I only needed to make one eighth of it. The console structure is gum paste and sheet gelatin, assembled around blue, green, and aqua LEDs and attached to the mirrors with clear piping gel. Then I had a good time sticking on a myriad of gum paste and royal icing levers, dials, cables, monitors, etc. At times the mirrors made things a little difficult because it was sometimes hard to remember which was the real console and which was the reflection. Liberal use of silver, bronze, and gold luster dust made everything nice and shiny.

With the interior finished, I assembled the exterior gum paste pieces, adding the royal icing molding around the perimeter of each recessed panel, and installing the window mullions and backing.

It was at this point in the process that we decided that we really should schedule a party so that we would have something to do with this cake when it was finished. Fortunately, we have a lot of nerd friends, so we soon had about forty positive rsvps to our evite. It was also at this point in the process that I took some time off to go to Comic-Con and then on a family trip to Colorado, so my gum paste pieces had a long time to thoroughly dry. This was definitely an advantage, because it would have been very hard to assemble the cake with anything less than 100% dry gum paste and because the pieces were so large that they did require some significant drying time.

A week before the party I began assembling the exterior, beginning by putting together the "Police Box" signs around my strings of white LEDs. I backed the cutout letters with rice paper, both to diffuse the light and so that I could stick the free-floating interior pieces of the O's, P's, A's, and B's to the rice paper.

Because of the mirrors and the interior space only a little less than half of the interior was actually going to be made of cake. This meant that I could install two of the four sides prior to baking any cake and even attach and solder their respective "Police Box" signs.

Three days before the party I baked the cake. We decided to go with a banana cake with chocolate buttercream icing because, to quote the Doctor, "You should always bring a banana to a party. Bananas are good." I needed a total of eight two inch tall, ten inch square cakes. Of the eight cakes, seven of them were cut in half on the diagonal and stacked in the body of the Tardis. The last cake was reserved for the square top section.

With the cakes in place, I covered them with a layer of fondant, to prevent the gum paste exterior pieces from coming into contact with the buttercream, which would moisten, soften, and weaken the gum paste. Then I was able to install the last two side pieces and their respective "Police Box" signs.

I put the top section together separately, carving the slanted roof, covering it with fondant, and then assembling the gum paste pieces around it with royal icing. I left a hole through the middle, so that I could run blinking LEDs through it for the light on top. Once the top section was in place, my Tardis really started to look like a complete piece, but it still needed a lot a detail work.

I used fondant rather than gum paste to cover the base and for the trim on the corners and in the center of each side panel because some of them needed to be relatively thick, which is easier to accomplish with fondant. I did use gum paste, however, for the thin strips of molding around the perimeter of each "Police Box" sign.

To make the little light on top, I wrapped rice paper around gum paste circles, then put panels of sheet gelatin on top of that, followed by gum paste trim and royal icing mullions. The curved top is gum paste dried over Styrofoam balls.

With all the major features in place, I went over the entire structure with royal icing smoothed with a damp paintbrush, to hide unwanted seams and fill in a few gaps. Then, to give it that distressed look of a vehicle that's been to the end of the universe and back again, I went into all the corners with some black powdered food coloring on a soft paintbrush.

To make the sign for the front of the Tardis, I blew up an image of it to the correct size and then essentially made some edible transfer paper by coating the back with black powdered food coloring. I put this on top of a dry white piece of gum paste and traced all the letters with a stylus to transfer the text onto the gum paste below. Then I painted over the letters with black paste color.

The finishing touches were the royal icing handles, hinges, and tacks to hold on the sign, and the gum paste lock.

Carrying the cake to the table for the party was a bit stressful and difficult, as it probably weighed fifty pounds and all of the weight was in one half of the cake. Part of me was convinced that, after literally months of planning and building, I was going to drop it at the penultimate moment. But actually the move went perfectly smoothly. I got my brother-in-law to help me and he even bravely volunteered to carry the heavy end.

I'm really pleased with the way this one came out, maybe more so than any cake I've ever made before. Please note that, with the exception of the mirrors, the electronics, and the wooden base and dowels and foam core separators that would needed in any cake this size, it is entirely edible. (And if anyone knows how to make an edible mirror, please let me know.) It's hard to capture the "bigger-on-the-inside" effect in a photo, but I do think it was pretty darned successful. By an odd coincidence, Cake Wrecks (one of my favorite websites) did a Dr. Who post on the very same day that we had our party, so I immediately sent them photos of the cake, mere hours after it had been consumed, and they very kindly posted it right away!

For hours after we attended the Dr. Who panel at Comic-Con, my sister-in-law and I were all a-twitter about how awesome it was; now I still kind of feel that way about this cake.



MORE PICTURES

Labels: ,

82 Comments:

  • That is crazy creative--amazing! How long did it take you? What problems did you run into?

    I feel good about myself when I tint some buttercream frosting and decorate my kids' cakes...

    By Blogger Laura, At August 17, 2009 at 12:56 PM  

  • I put it up on Digg:

    http://digg.com/food_drink/Amazing_TARDIS_cake_it_s_bigger_on_the_inside

    By Blogger Rachel, At August 17, 2009 at 5:40 PM  

  • yeah, this is soooooo amazing... i can't believe the level of detail you go to! it is such an inspiration, really. And my boyfriend and i both grew up on Dr. Who back in the '80s, so this is super nostalgic as well. Thank you so much, and you did an excellent job!! (Looks like it was delicious, too!)

    By Blogger silvergirl, At August 18, 2009 at 6:23 PM  

  • This is probably the most wonderful thing I've ever seen.

    By Blogger bella, At August 25, 2009 at 1:05 PM  

  • This is without a doubt, the most amazing piece of Doctor Who fan creativity I have ever seen!

    And to think, the Doctor thought edible ball bearings were amazing! How about edible expanded steel flooring and brass doorhandles?!


    Nat.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 28, 2009 at 11:47 AM  

  • Oh, no effing way. Dude, you remain CRAZY AWESOME. How I wish I could have seen this in person...

    By Anonymous Matthias, At August 31, 2009 at 6:49 PM  

  • Fantastic! as the Doctor says ;) The detail is amazing and I bet it tasted great too.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 2, 2009 at 5:55 PM  

  • I have NO clue who Dr. Who is, much less the show. But I will say this, it is the most awesome cake i've ever seen.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 3, 2009 at 12:49 PM  

  • you are my hero. This is without a doubt, the coolest and most accurate cake I have ever seen! Genius! The Doctor would be impressed.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 8, 2009 at 7:59 PM  

  • Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing! Simply FANTASTIC! It made me and my whole familys' jaw drop! I wish I had the patience to make one!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 8, 2009 at 8:36 PM  

  • I have to say this is the most amazing cake ever. The detail is wonderfully accurate and minute. All I could think while looking at it was this is what I need for a wedding cake. Its beautiful, congrats!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 9, 2009 at 6:25 PM  

  • This is f-ing amazing! You could make a mint selling these. Hell if I had the $ I would pay you to come to NYC make one for my SciFi group...

    You rock!

    By Anonymous Cheryl, At September 11, 2009 at 9:38 AM  

  • One word...Awsome!!

    By Anonymous Lisa in GA, At September 12, 2009 at 3:26 PM  

  • That is truly, truly amazing.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 15, 2009 at 4:20 AM  

  • Oh wow! That is by far the most amazing cake ever made. I love how you actually made it look bigger on the inside :D

    By Anonymous Jasmine, At September 19, 2009 at 2:18 PM  

  • Super Super Super Super Super! Formidable! I am agog. That is spectacular! You have great skill and tenacity.

    By Blogger Liz Stokes, At September 22, 2009 at 3:46 AM  

  • That is incredible. I tip my hat at your hard work.

    ~ Misha/DawaiOser

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 22, 2009 at 12:47 PM  

  • You are my new hero! Do you give lessons? I am getting started and I can't wait to be as skilled as you are. Just Amazing!
    Deirdre

    By Anonymous Deirdre Connors www.bythebatch.biz, At September 25, 2009 at 6:31 AM  

  • My daughter wants one for her wedding cake.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 27, 2009 at 9:16 AM  

  • We discussed this in Bridging the Rift podcast episode 7 :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 27, 2009 at 3:50 PM  

  • you are my hero. Brilliant!

    By Blogger Unknown, At September 30, 2009 at 1:18 AM  

  • Came from Cake Wrecks. This is absolutely, bloody brilliant!!! Don't be surprised if you get commissions from the Dr. Who folks!!!

    By Blogger Kitten99, At October 1, 2009 at 9:10 PM  

  • Absolutely amazing!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 4, 2009 at 6:42 AM  

  • You are my new hero. I bow before you!

    By Blogger Brian Gardes, At October 14, 2009 at 9:32 AM  

  • This is, without a doubt, the single most outstanding piece of cake art I have ever seen. I am truly and utterly blown away.. Fantastic!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 14, 2009 at 7:01 PM  

  • this was for a party that you had to move!!!! the cake to?!!! the physics of the endeavor are amazing

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 15, 2009 at 2:07 PM  

  • Your work is gorgeous. I love the complete vision you had here.

    By Blogger Teenage Timelord, At October 16, 2009 at 10:02 PM  

  • WOW!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 17, 2009 at 7:38 PM  

  • How is that a cake? I applaud you for the modeling but it's ruined by adding food to it. Which is pointless at this point and just a hassle. Either make a cake, or a model. Not both in one.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 19, 2009 at 10:18 AM  

  • I suspect an adequate quote would be:
    "The Doctor: You've built this system out of food and string and staples. Professor Yana, you're a genius."
    Alright, I hope you're no Yana, but you're still a bloody genius.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 19, 2009 at 3:00 PM  

  • That has to be the most phenomenal cake I have ever seen!!

    By Anonymous Regan, At October 19, 2009 at 3:19 PM  

  • this is truly wonderful -- i wish i could've seen it in real life! and double-plus points for making it a banana cake!

    By Blogger KarraCrow, At October 19, 2009 at 3:44 PM  

  • How long did the whole project take from beginning to end (including trial and error)? It's so amazing, I wouldn't have the heart to eat it.

    By Blogger "Ace Underwood", At October 19, 2009 at 4:38 PM  

  • That is so freaking cool! Did you make a jelly baby flavored filling?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 19, 2009 at 4:58 PM  

  • ah... wow.

    By Blogger katy, At October 19, 2009 at 5:53 PM  

  • crazy. amazing. cheers to you and Dr. Who!

    By Blogger WH, At October 19, 2009 at 8:19 PM  

  • Seems such a shame to make parts of it edible/perishable. Edible doesn't equal delicious and to think of all that lovely work spoiled to consume it makes me sad.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 19, 2009 at 9:19 PM  

  • That is AMAZING work. Well done! I had to throw the link at the DWO Whocast guys to share it with them. :)

    By Anonymous Anna the Piper, At October 20, 2009 at 10:51 AM  

  • A-MAZ-ING!!!!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 31, 2009 at 11:51 PM  

  • aboslutely brilliant, and delicious....

    By Blogger N2KMaster, At November 4, 2009 at 2:37 PM  

  • That is effin nuts. WOW!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At November 25, 2009 at 1:07 PM  

  • Now that is amazing.

    By Anonymous Mik, At December 1, 2009 at 6:20 PM  

  • You're a weirdo y did u spend so much time on a cake?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At December 5, 2009 at 7:52 AM  

  • I found this randomly, and can I just say: Oh. My. God. This is the most amazing, fantastic, STUPENDOUS cake I have ever seen, and also the greatest model of the TARDIS outside of the one in the BBC studios itself. I am absolutely in awe. The interior through the windows, and the lights, and it looks just like my favourite version of the TARDIS, and on top of all of that it's edible!
    You should be so, so proud. And also, you should make a non-edible one to keep forever! (or I would if I knew how to do it, hehe :) )

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At December 7, 2009 at 3:24 PM  

  • Too awesome!

    By Blogger Mackenzie, At December 13, 2009 at 2:09 PM  

  • that's amazing! oh my goodness i'm totally blown away by this! :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At December 13, 2009 at 5:45 PM  

  • There are two ways you can make an edible mirror. The first (and best) idea is to make sugar glass with aluminum. Make a base and line the bottom with the shiny side of the aluminum. It wont have the best reflection like a real mirror. The second option is to make sugar glass again but air brush the back with one of those shiny edible paints. The first option will probably be your best bet since some of the really shiny paints are not that good for you and will not reflect as well as aluminum.

    I was wondering what were the dimensions of your cake. You did not use anything of standard size to use as a scale for the cake. Other than that the cake is freaking FANTASTIC!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At December 30, 2009 at 3:18 PM  

  • This is simply the most amazing cake (and process!) that I've ever seen! You are truly spatially gifted!

    By Blogger Victoria, At January 3, 2010 at 8:08 PM  

  • This is, hands-down, the most incredible cake I have ever seen. The detail work that went into making such a flawless rendition of the beloved TARDIS is stunning. I wish every Dr. Who fan could see this. Absolutely amazing. A big congratulations on your creation!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At February 18, 2010 at 1:01 PM  

  • i wouldnt have believed it if i hadnt seen it step by step.it is just to amazing for words.i design/make cakes but im a beginner compered to you skill.you are THE god of cake designers everywhere :)

    By Anonymous nettie morgan, At February 28, 2010 at 12:06 AM  

  • Truly awesome... I am blown away! Some people (myself included) couldn't even make a model this well... but a CAKE? Congrats guys!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At March 3, 2010 at 12:38 PM  

  • I keep scrolling back up to look at the inside effect, and I keep being absolutely amazed. I'm not normally into cake art, but compared to the cakes I've seen before this, this is in a completely different dimension!

    It would have been phenomenal even as a wooden model; as a cake it is even more precious, because the work is begun, and passionately pursued, even while knowing that what is created cannot last. Because really, what banana-flavoured object could ever be expected to last?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At March 12, 2010 at 9:57 PM  

  • You are my hero... The TARDIS... and cake?! TOGETHER?!! <3
    And so beautifully made, too!

    By Blogger Unknown, At March 27, 2010 at 11:14 PM  

  • wow you have combined my two favourite things a tardis and some cake , it must have been heart breaking to destroy and hard to make but yeah wow just wow wow wow wow

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At April 1, 2010 at 1:35 PM  

  • Holy. Shit.
    My mouth is still hanging open in awe.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At April 16, 2010 at 8:36 PM  

  • Wow...we bow down to you! You are the ULTIMATE T.A.R.D.I.S Cake Lord!! OMG...I'm in awe!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At April 24, 2010 at 8:37 AM  

  • This is the single most awesome thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At April 27, 2010 at 3:59 AM  

  • We agree with all the WOW people... You are the goddess of cake. This is AMAZING! Why did you eat it? I would have cried eating a cake of such mastery. You really are amazingly talented. And committed! Wow. Just... Wow...

    Would you like to come to my birthday and make me a cake? *offers soul*

    By Anonymous Millie and Hayley, At May 7, 2010 at 8:28 PM  

  • That is absolutely the most fantastic thing I have ever seen! The amount of work and detail you put into it is phenomenal. You deserve some kind of medal!! :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At May 26, 2010 at 7:29 AM  

  • Fantastic!!

    By Anonymous Danni, At May 31, 2010 at 3:37 AM  

  • This is the most beautiful cake I have EVER seen. Amazing work!

    By Blogger Lilli, At June 1, 2010 at 4:12 PM  

  • That is utterly extraordinary!

    By Blogger Tyler, At June 8, 2010 at 9:48 AM  

  • I am a long time Doctor who fan, and in the midst of writing a Doctor Who novel. I needed a break from the writing, and stumbled upon this fantastic work of Art. you captured it brilliantly!!! Hats off to you!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At June 14, 2010 at 6:56 PM  

  • ♥♥♥This is brilliant on so many levels!♥♥♥

    Well done!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At June 19, 2010 at 4:06 PM  

  • dude can u make a cake like that for me cuz im trying to do the same thing

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At June 21, 2010 at 10:32 AM  

  • i think its really good shame that it wasnt all done by cake after all ive seen shows do it where they do all of it in cake owever use battery operated light and sounds and stuff to make it look and sound realistic...... not critiscising just saying :P good work though

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At June 23, 2010 at 3:21 AM  

  • can u make me 1 ???

    By Anonymous kyle w, At June 30, 2010 at 7:47 AM  

  • OMG you are amazing! Now I want a Tardis cake for my birthday! Or maybe a Dalek...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At July 1, 2010 at 1:25 PM  

  • Beautiful cake! Love the details. You've done the show justice.

    By Blogger Neztra, At July 13, 2010 at 12:17 PM  

  • WoW! Just amazing. Excellent work, made me smile.

    By Blogger Liz, At July 16, 2010 at 10:56 PM  

  • is there any way to get this in like a step-by-step guide? I really want to make this for my birthday (I'm such a Who fan it's ridiculous).

    By Blogger Unknown, At July 22, 2010 at 11:30 PM  

  • By far the coolest cake i've ever seen. I love how the extreme concept actually worked. Catch is once you've made a cake that great, how do you top it?

    By Anonymous dea, At August 1, 2010 at 6:53 AM  

  • Awesomest. Thing. Ever. Spawned this conversation with my boyfriend: http://serene.dreamwidth.org/113932.html

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 11, 2010 at 7:50 PM  

  • This is fantastic! I cannot believe level of detail you put into this masterpiece, especially when compared to my tried and true smear-icing-on-my-burnt-cupcakes method. I'm amazed that the interior isn't just a picture, I didn't think it was real cake! As a huge Doctor Who fan, you are forever my cake hero.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 11, 2010 at 11:29 PM  

  • Dude, those pictures are obviously Photoshopped. Everybody knows that... (drumroll)... THE CAKE IS A LIE! (slapshot)


    (And before anyone posts an objection, that was a indeed a joke. "The cake is a lie" is a reference to a video game called "Portal".)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 13, 2010 at 11:40 AM  

  • That is the most amazing TARDIS cake I've ever seen.

    I've seen pics online of people attempting to make Dalek cakes. Maybe you should do one of those next? One lady even made a talking Dalek cake!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 20, 2010 at 3:15 PM  

  • Wow, just wow. What a cake! I love the way you made it bigger on the inside! It was a stroke of genius.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 1, 2010 at 5:29 AM  

  • Hi there! I linked your entry here to my blog, where I go over some of my favorite Doctor Who related things in honor of Tardis Day. :D Just a heads up! Love this cake!!

    By Blogger Alyssa, At November 23, 2010 at 1:56 PM  

  • Just wanted to send you a heads up about a contest BBC America is hosting: http://www.wheresthetardis.com/
    As much as I would LOVE to win, myself, I REALLY think you should. This TARDIS is just amazing! please enter!
    (BTW I found you through cakewrecks and you are just fantastic!)

    By Blogger Janina, At December 25, 2010 at 9:40 PM  

  • Bloody hell! That must have been painful to cut and eat such a beautiful cake! The best Doctor Who cake... no, the best cake in general that I have ever seen!

    By Anonymous ten, At January 5, 2011 at 11:12 PM  

  • Holy crap!
    I write a Doctor Who Baking blog, but my creations are just crap in comparison to this.
    I just.....it's completely amazing! You guys are crazy! I don't know how you have the patience, I really don't.
    I think I love you guys
    xxx

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At January 14, 2011 at 7:07 AM  

  • Shoosh person

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At September 1, 2013 at 9:50 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home