Colts Superbowl Cake

I have been seriously thinking about getting back into cake decorating.  Some 15 years ago, a friend and I took a Wilton Cake Decorating class at JoAnn Fabrics.  It was the beginner course, and we learned the basics of cake baking and decorating.  We learned trickes on  how to ice the cake smoothly, create borders, place characters on sheets cakes and make those beautiful roses Wilton is so known for.  Unfortunetly, that was the one thing I couldn't master.  I'll leave the roses for someone else.  :)  I had quite the little cake business going on for awhile.  I was making cakes for every ocassion and for anyone I knew.  I slowly got out of cake decorating because life caught up with me.  In the form of one husband Roy, and two little girls Caroline and Makenzie.  :)  I have thought on many occassions of getting back into cake decorating.  I have made the girls birthday cakes every year since their birth but that has been the extent of my cake baking/decorating the past five years. 

Well,  the cake decorating bug has hit me again.  I love watching Ace of Cakes on the Food Network and I am amazed at their abilities to creative such beautiful works of art.  I am way far off from doing anything like that but would love to learn the art of fondant and gum paste.  I have spoke of this to Roy and he even went to the links of giving my info the Culinary Arts Institute of Indianapolis.  This was very thoughtful of him, but it would have been nice to have a heads up about this.  You see, they have been calling me and I am like, how on earth did you know I was thinking of pursuing this?   I told Roy about my conversation with a respresentive from the Arts Institute and his reply was this..." Oh yeah,  I forgot to tell you, I sent them your info."  A little heads up would have been nice.  Maybe when the girls are in school full-time, I will think about heading back to school myself.  But in the meantime, I think I will work on making this dream of mine a reality.  I have been searching the web for cake ideas, how-to's and discovered that Provo Craft, the makers of the Cricut are coming out with a Cricut Cake machine, specifically for cake decorating.  Yipee!!  I saw an internet ad on this and fell in love instantly.  {Can't wait for May to get here so I can get my hands on this little machine.}  I have been to our local library and checked out books on cake recipes, cake decorating and more how-to's and have been combing the aisles of Hobby Lobby and JoAnn Fabric for new, fun supplies. 

On one of my trips to Hobby Lobby I discovered this cake pan.  And with our Indianapolis Colts in the Superbowl this year, I just had to have it. 

Here are a few pictures of my journey back in to the cake decorating world.

1)  Football helmet pan filled with Pillsbury white cake mix.

2)  All the ingredients for white royal icing. 

3)  Batch #1 of icing. 

I love my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  Couldn't make cakes and/or icing without it.

4) Helmet cake is cooled and ready for icing.

I first put a thin layer of icing on the cake to "crumb' coat it.  

5)  "Crumb" coating is done.  Now onto the details of the helmet. 

6)  Don't forget to add the border around the bottom.

7)  Finished product. 

One Colt's Helmet cake. 

Even if we didn't win the Superbowl, I think my cake was a Touchdown.