Happy Birthday Hubby

So my husband and I are obsessed with this show on Discovery called Moonshiners, so much so that we have decided, well when I say we I really mean he, to make his own still and start brewing Moonshine. Luckily this is legal in New Zealand provided it is for your own consumption and you don't try to sell it. This is lucky for us as it means we don't have to hide out in the forest brewing and finding ourselves friends with toothless hillbilly bootleggers named Tickle and Chico.

I have always made him a special themed cake always his favourite Devils Food and generally his latest hobby, yes he is a man and has many hobbies, or something thats going on in our lives. His first cake was covered in Kinder Surprises might seem strange but, earlier that year I had gone into hospital from some surgery and when I came home the first thing he said to me was "I think you should look in the mirror" of course I started off on this big rant "I have just had surgery and just come home so of course I look terrible" and as I glanced over at the mirror he had bought me a new dvd and a giant Kinder Surprise, Since then they have had a rather soft spot in our hearts.

Year two was huge Lego man, year three was an Airplane as I got him flying lessons, year four Snowboarding cake as this was his latest hobby. Year five was an xbox controller, this was one of my favourites.This brings us up to year six and his new hobby Moonshining. I have to say this was one of my most disappointing cakes, such a simple idea but I found it so difficult to translate the ideas in my head onto the fondant getting the right shape. I have since learnt from watching cake shows that I could have sculpted in rice crispy treats and then covered in fondant.

Regardless this was the end result.

Hubby really hates fondant so I used butter cream and piped "Grass" as the cake covering, used wee 1D moonshine jugs made from fondant and my "Still" creation for the top.

The "Still" took me the longest of anything I have done to make as it was modelled, flattened, built up again, torn down and then after giving myself 3 weeks to prep it was suddenly his birthday tomorrow so I had to double the Tylose Powder sculpt and place. The Scale is not quite right and for all you Moonshiners out there, Yes I know the "Worm" should be in the barrel but then you wouldn't see it and after attempting to get the coil just right 3 times it needed to be seen.

Here are the progress pictures. When sculpting or modelling I always work on a polystyrene block so I can push my supports in, whether its toothpicks or cake pop sticks. 

My birthday is next, is it sad to make your own cake?? Probably.

Oh and  an update on our Moonshine, Well the burner, 100L stainless steel mash pot and various bits of copper sit in our shed and garage, along with 20 boxes of lego city, 2 snowboards and and extremely heavy suitcase filled with paintballs guns and accessories.