How To Make A Wine Bottle Cake
A wine bottle... cake... sounds simple right??
I actually figured this whole thing out by a process of elimination! My first try at this was for my husbands friend's bachelor party and I made it with just cake. I used a "guitar" cake mold and tried to cut it to look like the shape of a wine bottle, but the biggest problem is that it was FLAT! Bottles aren't flat.... so hence, my dilemma. Then... for my father-in-laws 60th birthday I came to the conclusion that I could mold rice krispies into the shape of a wine bottle and cover it with fondant. It worked!! (thank god)
This type of cake is really fun for birthdays or any celebration. You can change the label to say anything that you want. You can also make accessories with fondant to customize the cake to each person... time to get creative!!
*Start by baking a cake, the flavor of your choice, in a 13 by 9 inch pan (making sure to butter and flour the cake pan well so that it will come out easily)
*Let the cake cool for about 30 minutes and flip onto the serving platter; allow to cool completely
*While the cake cools you can start making the rice krispie shaped bottle
*I just used the classic rice krispie recipe that you can find
!
*Instead of pouring the mixture into a pan I pour it out onto wax paper and shape it freehand into a wine bottle shape (make sure it is small enough to fit on the cake). I usually do not need the entire batch to make the wine bottle so either save the rest of the mixture to snack on, or make it into something else for the cake decorations.
*Let the wine bottle rice krispie cool completely
*In the mean time frost the cake
*If you are using butter cream icing you will need to color it with brown food coloring
*Do a "crumb coat" first; a "crumb coat" is a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake to catch any loose crumbs, then refrigerate for around 10 minutes to let it set. This will help create a smooth finish.
*Finish frosting the cake
I recommend a butter cream icing (here's my recipe)
*Here is a look at my process of making the accessories*
*I start out with
and use food coloring to customize
*If you would like to shape things like the leaves the fondant needs to be rolled out thin (use powdered sugar like you would with flour if you were rolling out cookies to help make the fondant less sticky)
*Then allow the fondant shapes to dry while draped over a rolling pin or something of that nature and the fondant will harden in that shape. These take a few hours, at least, to dry out and hold their shape (feel free to make these a day or two ahead of time).
*For the wine bottle I do two layers of fondant because it will create a smoother finish
...This is a picture of the first layer...
*Try to make the bottle as smooth as you can before adding the second layer of fondant
*For the top of the wine bottle I used peach color of food coloring and coated it with edible gold dust (that can be found at a baking supply store) using a small paint brush that I only use for baking items. This way it looks like the foil you would find on the tops of champagne bottles.
*For the label; I keep the fondant white but lightly dust it with the gold before piping on the words
*I use a #1 tip for piping words... the smaller the tip is the easier it is to write with
Ready to assemble!
*To assemble I first place the wine bottle onto the frosted cake
*Then I shave white chocolate with a vegetable peeler and sprinkle it over the cake to look like packaging paper
*Then it's time to add the accessories that had been dried out to keep their shape
Here's the first time I tried out rice krispies for the wine bottle!
Please note that you cannot refrigerate this cake once the fondant is on because it will soften the fondant and make it lose its shape. Then when brought to room temperature it will create moisture that will cause the fondant to soften and melt the color. Sooooo..... if you are making this ahead of time you can make the cake and refrigerate it. Once you are ready to serve it, bring the cake to room temperature and then assemble. The rice krispie is more for looks than eating so it is ok if it dries out. Once you have presented and served the cake you can then take the accessories off and refrigerate the cake.