Little Red Schoolhouse cake

[KatieM]

Hello everyone! I am asking for some advice on how to create a cake in the shape of a little red schoolhouse big enough to feed 25 people. I've searched all over the internet, and I can't seem to find any pictures of anything like this. Obviously, it would be simple to do out of gingerbread, but I'm a little unsure on how to do it out of cake. I've done a few other sculpted cakes recently with much success, so I'm not afraid, just perplexed. I think it's that I just can't visualize it. Has anyone seen anything like this before, or have any tips on how to go about it?

It's for my boss, whose mother used to teach in a little red schoolhouse, and he'd like to surprise her with this cake for her 85th birthday celebration next week. He's a super guy, so I'd really like to come up with something special if I can.

Any thoughts are very much appreciated!

[lcdm]

Why don't you make it flat? Like a sheet cake in the shape of a house.

Or if you want it built to look like a model of a house, maybe make a rectangular layer cake and use something else for the roof (like gingerbread) and remove before serving.

[K8memphis]

Flat is good.

But what I would do is bake like a few 8x8's and stack them up--I tell yah what is cakey and kinda cool would be to use red velvet cake and not ice the outside-just torte it all even and fill it and let the white icing show on the sides like it was mortar. Kind of log cabin-y. But just some brainstorm type little red schoolhouse thoughts.

I would actually cut a strip out of the middle so I could keep the nice edges intact. Because it should be a rectangle shaped building. Umm, I would do the roof out of cardboard myself.

I don't know how much help that is--but maybe look up some pictures online.

edited to say: clickety and clickety again and they kinda look the same huh? This one is from my home town--you gotta scroll down a bit--it's got a cool bell--it should have a bell on it.

Edited March 10, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[flour girl]

Just for fun:

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/partycake/index.html

[annanstee]

Wilton has a stand up house shaped cake pan you could adapt

[http://fantes.com/images/2545cake_pan_shapes.jpgclick

Not sure if it would be big enough though.

Edited March 11, 2006 by annanstee (log)

[lapasterie]

I would use black fondant for the roof.