Last week I did an anchor groom’s cake, and the groom requested specifically that the anchor be brown and rusty-looking, not shiny.
That meant that I had to treat the icing differently, but it’s a lot easier than making it perfectly shiny!
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Cut the shape.
I started with a 9″x13″ sheet and cut the shape out of it.
The length of the cake was the entire stem and round loop at the top, and I pieced the hook out of the parts that were cut from the sides of the stem.
The cake would probably serve around 21 or so, based on how much cake was left over.
For this one I used a board that was 18″ square.
Do the first icing coat.
I used ganache to cover the cake, then iced it again with white icing. It doesn’t matter if the two icings mix.
Add the rust details.
I put some rusty- colored icings on the anchor randomly, then iced it flat so that the colors mixed.
Using a mixture of copper, orange and white food colorings diluted with vodka, I sprayed the anchor with random rust spots.
I then splattered some white on it and then sprayed it some more with the copper color to give it some texture.
Add the rope.
Refrigerate the cake for a bit to let the icing firm up, and make the rope. Roll out two pieces of fondant or chocolate clay and twist them together.
Wrap the rope around the anchor in different spaces, making sure to loop it around the loop at the top of the anchor.
Spray the rope with some of the copper colors to give it some depth.
Then take a paper towel that has a pattern on it and dab the cake here and there to remove some of the color.
If the icing is cold it won’t pull the icing totally off, but it should accomplish two things.
First, it should remove some of the lighter color and reveal the darker icing underneath.
Second, the paper towel should leave some texture on the cake, which will enhance the effect of being rusty.
You normally wouldn’t use a textured paper towel on a cake, since you don’t want a pattern on your cake, but in this case the bumpy pattern will work in your favor.
Cover the board with graham cracker “sand” and take a bag with you to finish at the reception site, or do another type of covering for the board.
You can also use different colors to spray the anchor, like greens or blues to simulate other colors or rust and corrosion.
