Making a Piano Keyboard Cake

Making a piano keyboard cake...

 Coming up with ideas for cakes can sometimes be a challenge...but not this one.  Our daughters are all blessed with musical abilities and there was never a question!

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Obviously a cake to feed less than 10 people needs to be a smaller cake, but I'm going to make a keyboard for a grown daughter who LOVES the piano.  I already know I will make the white keys out of fondant, but the black keys????

Then it came to me....KitKats!  Could they work????

Next, color the fondant.  Do NOT forget to wear gloves.  That's important...unless you would like to add color to your body.  I used Ameri-Gel Super Black.  Many times for cookie icing I start with a brown and add black.Because adding a lot of black usually makes a bitter icing...almost medicine tasting.   But this time I just went straight to the black and a relatively small amount made a beautiful dark color today.

I rolled out the fondant a medium thick and began to find the measurements for covering the candy "key"

 The size was obviously altered and then wrapped gently around the Kit Kat.

Make sure you put the remnants in a bag or under a small bowl so that it does not dry out.

 The first key was made and smoothed and left on the rack to dry a bit.  Isn't it cute?

 Cake was trimmed, stacked and crumb-coated  the night before.

The day is BEAUTIFUL and COLD !

And I was excited to see the picture in my head come to life.  Would it really work?

 Now, I admit I had to measure to find the ratio of the key widths.  It was almost 2:1

Who knew...butter, sugar, cake and math!

I am always amazed that so much math can be involved !!!

The other thing that constantly makes my heart flutter is to see how all the little touches make such a difference.  One of these days I'm gonna learn how to make sharp edges.  I truly have watched U-Tubes and gone to blogs and practiced...promise.  My skills are improving...slowly.  Just how many cakes do I have to do before I get those edges?  But hey...shells are really okay!

A few gum paste roses, leaves and writing...

a MINI keyboard!

I think this is my favorite  part...the part where those you love and bake for finally get their cakes.

Why is that?  I'm not a pro, but some cakes take all that time in the  planning, the baking, the decorating, the  anticipation.  Then that moment of completion, where utter relief washes over you.  And last of all the "reveal" where you feel such a sense of accomplishment and joy....all to have it cut and eaten and turned into crumbs...all in a matter of minutes. 

In what other medium do we take so much effort to make something only to have it destroyed in moments and yet think that's a good thing?

I LOVE baking!