For Mason’s birthday party this Saturday he has requested an Xbox cake. I have volunteered to create the cake. Did I mention I’ve never really decorated a cake before? For the uninitiated, this is what a real Xbox looks like:
One thing I’ve always been really good at is charactures. The secret involves looking at a person or item picking out unique parts and then emphasizing them (my team always won in Pictionary and Win, Lose or Draw). When looking at that Xbox, I think the key features are: black, green circle on top, roughly rectangular.
After searching Google, I’ve discovered two things. #1, Xbox cakes aren’t all that rare, and #2, there are some really good looking ones out there. Most of these seem to use fondant — that thick stuff they use on some wedding cakes (and all those cake competition shows). What I didn’t know before I started researching this cake is, most people don’t eat fondant. They pick it off before eating the cake. How dumb is that? I don’t want to make a cake that you can’t eat! A tasty alternative I’ve run across is a marshmallow-based fondant which apparently also works and is tasty as well. Unfortunately, I’m not sure learning a new cake technique the day before the cake is due is the best idea. This time around I’m going to stick with the basics.
Here are a few Xbox cakes I found via Google. Looks like I am up against some stuff competition.
I’ll post pictures of mine tomorrow, regardless of how it turns out.
The other part of that is that it takes a ton of food coloring to get that black look (if not, you just get an icky gray), and then it doesn’t taste all that good. Talk to Paula W. for cake decorating tips. She’s an expert, used to do all kinds of decorating. Good luck, and keep a backup cake just in case!
Mom
In addition to making the Xbox cake, you should put a gingerbread house next to it, which – this being an original Xbox – will be to scale.