Join the Quest

Betty Boop mummy was certain she wanted me to bake her son's birthday cake, so she gave me many weeks of notice for a Camp Lazlo cake. Camp what? I asked. It was another lesson in Cartoon Network characters. Camp Lazlo is a quirky boy scout-like anthropomorphic bunch that play out adventures at a summer camp. Wow, where do I even start? After much consideration, I decided it was a cake project out of my depth. So sadly, I referred her to more capable hands.

Then the birthday boy had a change of mind for the cake and due to the timing, the project was still mine to undertake!

The new cake request: a Deltora Quest cake! Both his mummy and I were stumped. What is Deltora Quest? Well, it's a fantasy cartoon series that follows the characters across the land of Deltora to recover the magical 'Belt of Deltora' and defeat evil forces (think Lord of the Rings  or belt in this case). We discussed over Youtube links of Deltora Quest and figured a boy castle featuring the magical belt was in order. I was all ready for adventure.

Immediately, my previous experience with the princess castle came in handy. I used wafer cones and sugar cones to create the castle. This time everything was grey scale. I wrapped the wafer cones in fondant and used my brickwork pattern to press out the castle wall. The monochrome outside worked well since the main cake is a round rainbow stack sitting on a chocolate base.

The other important element is the 'belt' of Deltora. I used hard candies to create the gems - it's amazing what candies and some colouring can do (emeralds and opals anyone?). FYI. Deltora is spelt using the first letter of each of the gems in the belt: Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Lazuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, Amethyst.

Belt of Deltora

I also attempted a figurine of Lief, the main character in the story.

Lief in fondant

As I was building up the castle, I ran into some foundation problem so I called upon my 'structural engineer' (aka the hubby) and he provided the pillar support. To hold the two wafer cones together, a long satay stick was driven into the middle and into the cake.

Building castles in the cake

After toiling many many hours, here's my first boy castle cake...

Happy Birthday Darren

To be honest, I'm not completely happy with it. I know the problematic areas and wish I had done  some things differently - like a bigger base cake and better torting for a flatter surface (I need a cake leveller!) But in all of this, I thank you Mummy E for always being so supportive.