Meet Sir Jacques Steampunkin! A Steampunk Pumpkin Head Cake

October 25, 2017 by The Violet Cake Shop™ Leave a comment

It’s almost Hallowe’en and we just revealed a new cake collaboration.  My newest creation has been getting lots of love on Facebook and Instagram and I’ve gotten a few questions and lots of amazing comments, so I thought I’d introduce him here and answer a few of those questions at the same time…

Meet Sir Jacques Steampunkin! 🎃🎃🎃

He is my contribution to the 5th installment of our Sugar Spooks collaboration. 😈👿👹👺💀☠👻👽👾🤡

He is a culmination of my love of the Steampunk genre and what I imagined a creepy old jack o’lantern would look like. I wanted to do something not seen before. As I was creating him, he started to take on a stately look so I decided to make him a ‘Sir’ lol… I hope people like him as much as I do.

I’ve been asked what moulds I used and they are a variety of moulds that I’ve found throughout the years, some for cake decorating and others, not.  The cogs, frame and fleur-de-lis are from Mod Podge which are food safe silicone moulds made for use in polymer clay crafting but can be used for creating cake décor as well – just make sure you use them only for food and if you do crafting with clay as well as cake, make sure to get a separate set for use in each.

The other moulds I used (for the gold vest texture, and to detail the cakeboard – see closeup below) are from Marvelous Molds who make products that I love using in my decorating.  I have used their products for FORever (!!!) and use them in SO many different ways!

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For example, to add detail to Sir Jacques’ vest, I decided to use their new Symmetrical  Sequin Simpress Panel.  It’s meant to be used to texture a tier with sequins, easily and quickly.  But I used it here to give a luxe look to his vest which is a characteristic of the clothing often seen in Steampunk.

Sir Jacques’ pumpkin head is made from rice krispie treats (RKT) that I shaped into a flattened pumpkin shape, only so it wouldn’t be as heavy and round, and would sit better on the cake tier.  I then covered the RKT with a very thick panel of fondant, making sure the seam was at the bottom.  I used my Dresden tool (the flatter end) to mark the grooves and used the length of my right pinky to impress the grooves more until I was happy with the ‘pumpkiness’ of my creation.  Again, unfortunately, I did not take photos and now I wish I had, lol.

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I then coloured him with a variety of orange petal dust and shortening (which I know many claim as their own but is a technique I have used since I first started decorating, mostly when using lustre dust).  I then added dark brown in the grooves to create depth.

Since this was for a collaboration and I wanted to save him to use as a Hallowe’en prop at home, I used styro dummies for the cake tiers.  But this can just as easily be made from real cake, with the proper support for his head of course!

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His single goggle is handmade and detailed…using circle cutters, a piping tip to add the outlines for the screws, and an exacto knife to add the slit in the screws.

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 His hat is also made from RKT which I shaped into a tapered tier, then iced with ganache and covered with fondant (same as I would if made from cake).

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His mouth was handcut and painted.  I then added metal ‘staples’ which were cut from fondant and painted with silver lustre mixed with lemon extract (much better than vodka people!  I swear by it…and smells great too lol).

Hope you enjoyed meeting Sir Jacques Steampunkin!  I certainly enjoyed creating him.

Happy Caking Y’ALL and have a spooky Hallowe’en!!

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You can check out the other seriously amazing pieces by going to our website (http://www.sugarspooks.com/).

It’s an honour to be part of this group again. Big thanks to Avalon Yarnes of Avalon Cakes for spearheading such a talented group and including me in the mix.

I don’t normally do scary or creepy so it was so much fun to be able to stretch my creative wings!!