Yep, this post has nothing to do with beading and everything to do with cake! But beaders like cake, don’t they? Plus, us beaders would be a very boring bunch if our crafting interests were limited to beads alone. I love meeting beaders who also enjoy knitting, crocheting, decoupage, scrapbooking, sewing…

…and cake decorating! This past weekend, we celebrated a milestone birthday for my dad. He enjoys amateur photography, and really wanted a brand new Cannon camera. Since I couldn’t quite afford a top-of-the-line, professional-quality digital camera, I did the next best thing – I made a cake replica!

Here’s what I did:
1) Baked 2 cakes in 9 x 13-in. pans.
2) Carved one cake into the shape of the body of the camera, and carved the raised “grip” and the aperture/focusing ring out of the other cake. (To make the ring perfectly round, I cut the cake around a whipped cream container.)
3) Frosted the entire cake in chocolate (room temperature), then piped the details in vanilla (chilled).
4) Used chocolate sprinkles to give the illusion of texture around the body of the camera. Used M&Ms, marshmallows, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and devil’s food cookies to mimic the buttons, dials, and screws.
5) Cut out a picture of my dad and taped it to a plastic lid for the lens.

Have you ever beaded (or baked) a replica of something special to you or a loved one?