Montana Cowgirl Cake + Mini Tutorial

A few weeks ago I was lying in bed trying to get sleepy while looking through Pinterest when I saw the cutest Cowgirl Cake by Ana Beatriz Carrard.  I repinned it immediately tn my "Cake Inspiration" board, even though I don't do very many birthday cakes these days.  Wouldn't you know, the VERY next day, I got a call from a former client looking for a cowgirl cake.  I sent her a link to Ana's cake.

Of course, she loved it, so we took several elements from it and created our own cake.  The bandana tier went together much easier than I thought.  I covered the tier with fondant like I normally would and just left a little excess fondant for the folds.  The knot I made separate and just tacked it on to the front.  I made the belt buckle out of modeling chocolate and cut the the birthday girls' name using the Cricut. I searched the web over for a how-to on a fondant cowboy hat, but never found a good one.  In the end it as pretty easy.  I rolled out a gumpaste circle and then just gave it another roll with my rolling pin to "oval" it a little.  For the hat, I sorta made a wide taco shaped piece and molded it from there.  The rhinestone "hatband" ad the crystal heart were pieces left from past projects.  Yes, I have a flotsam bin... don't judge!! ;-)

The horse head is what I really dreaded making.  I'm just not someone that can draw a horse, or even horsey features on a horse-shaped cut out.  But Chaddy and I did something pretty awesome to get the look on those horses.  If you want to find out how, click the link below to finish reading and see the full tutorial!

 We had already found some horse clipart (at left) and cut it out using the Cricut.  And I had printed out the same graphic the same size so that eventually I could paint the features on the horse.  I just didn't see it turning out well.  I was working on the cake and Chaddy was looking at the horse shapes and the printout.  Then he said, "Why don't we just make a stencil?"  We did, and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself!  If you want to make you own stencil, here's what you will need:

• B&W Clipart (not all images will work)
• Card Stock
• Exacto Knife & Scissors
• Fondant, Modeling Chocolate, or Gumpaste
• Masking or Painters tape
• Make up sponge
• Petal Dust

OK, so print the clipart to the size you need onto the card stock.  Print a couple.  If you don't have a Cricut, you will cut around one of these copies so that you can cut out your silhouette from your gumpaste.  Once you have your silhouettes cut out, take you Exacto knife and begin cutting your stencil from your other copy.  Take a few minutes though to look at the image and make a gameplan.  You may want to leave some details out.  On our horse above, I left out the spots around the eyes and left out a lot of the small detail around his nose.  Be careful while cutting, but a minor slip "outside the lines" is not the end of the world... no one will ever know!

Once you have your stencil cut out, I used several small pieces of tape to adhere the modeling chocolate piece to the stencil.  If you can print your design in reverse, it makes it easier to position your gumpaste on the paper stencil.  Then take your make up sponge and some dry petal dusts (I used Cinnamon, since it would contrast well, and uhhh... it's a horse's name too!) and use the sponge to tap on the stencil.  It will take several layers to build up a nice color, so don't worry if it looks light on the first pass.  The dry dust will stick to your medium, but stay in the lines.  I think adding vodka to the mix (making it liquidy) would bleed under the stencil, as well as ruin it pretty quickly.  Give it a minute to set and then peel off the tape.  There's your horsey!!

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will reply back.  Have an awesome weekend and Happy Star Wars Day!  May the Fourth be with you!!