Phil's SF Giants Birthday Cake

We celebrated a big birthday last Saturday.  My boyfriend, Phil, turned 30!!  He is a super low-key guy and didn't want to do much for his birthday so I made him this San Francisco Giants baseball cap cake and a few friends and I surprised him with it. 

 

I've been meaning to make an SF Giants themed cake for Phil for quite some time but I love surprising people (if I could surprise people for a living, I'd be awesome at it and extremely rich) and since we live together that's not the easiest task.  To me, turning 30 is a big deal so I felt that I no longer had an excuse to not make him a cake.  Luckily, I work from home on Fridays and this cake was surprisingly easy to make.  I finished the entire thing in one day and it usually takes me 2 to 3 days to prep and complete a cake.  Basically, all this cake is made up of is: one 7 inch round cake, and a bill made of fondant and gum paste. 

Me and the birthday boy!

 The big 3-0.

Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.

Here are my tips if you would like to make your own baseball cap cake:

1) To make the bill, I took one of Phil's real baseball caps and traced the bill onto a piece of manila folder to make a template.  Use whatever you have on hand: cardboard, card stock, etc.  Something stiff enough to hold its shape and won't be cut into easily when you are cutting your shape out of the fondant.  

2) I used a 50/50 fondant and gum paste mixture.  Next time I would up the ratio of gum paste to fondant to allow the bill to dry faster and harder.  

3) To get a little shape in the bill, slide a piece of card stock underneath and push in the sides to create a round bump.  Tape the card stock in place with painter's tape (I always have a roll on hand) and allow the bill to dry.  You can even stuff some paper towels underneath the card stock for more stability.  Remove the card stock and paper towel when you are ready to present the cake.  

4) For the cake, bake two 7 inch layers of your favorite kind.  I used a carrot cake without nuts or raisins.  I omitted these ingredients because I knew I would have to do a little bit of carving and the nuts and raisins would make large chunks fall out of the cake.  All I really carved off was the edge of the top tier and two notches on both sides to give the cap a little life.  

5) I've learned to use cream cheese frosting only as a filling and not as my crumb coat.  The cream cheese frosting is much too soft and doesn't hold up to the warmth of my hands when I am smoothing out the fondant on the cake.  So instead I make a dam with Swiss meringue buttercream, fill with cream cheese frosting, and then use more buttercream for the crumb coat. 

Wow!  I can't believe I finished this whole cake, and cleaned up all the evidence in one day!  After making this list of tips it seems like there is a lot more work than I remembered.  Time management in these cases is your best friend!!