Dash 8

Samantha is a new friend of mine.  She's an amazing photographer, and we met due to common bond - our men are both pilots.   When her hubby got a new job, I was thrilled when she asked me to make the cake for his congratulations party.  I was very excited to have creative licence too.  She had a very small list of things she wanted.  Very small... ie.  1.  Just to make sure the new company's logo was on the cake.  The rest was up to me.

Pretty Close!

Me being me, my head went in 7 different directions.  A model of the new airport layout?  Simple tiered cake with cascading colours of the company?  A replica of the cockpit?  Drawing of the control panel?  A square cake with a giant tail fin sticking out was my second choice.

But none of them were right.  I really wanted to test myself.  So here is the start of an almost to scale Dash-8, Jonathan's new office:

Dash 8 Cake

I had some structural issues to figure out.  A Dash-8 tapers up off the ground at the back, and the wings are on the top of the body.  Fondant can work, but gum paste really is the best.  It's drying right now, and hopefully I made it the right size, because there is no trimming or fixing - it's a one shot deal.

Here's the wing, complete with flaperons (a word I thought was made up when I had my wing anatomy lesson yesterday).  It should have flaps and ailerons, but I'm working on a cake here... things are going to be off.

Disaster struck!  The wing didn't make it :(. The gum paste wasn't dry enough to support the weight of the prop and engine while letting some 'paint' dry, and it broke into 4 pieces.

A little fast thinking with less than 10 hours to delivery, I covered some cardboard with fondant and let it stiffen up over night. It's a better shape now, but doesn't have the details on it that I wanted; flaps and a more realistic profile.  I clearly need more practice with gum paste.

The engines are krispy treats, covered in fondant, and I stuck the props in them, and attached the landing gear for added support.  This step was not easy.  Next time I'll have to attach the engines way ahead of time to let the glue have lots of time to harden. 

I got to have fun with my board as well.  I normally just leave the board plain -silver foil, but a plane should sit on a runway.  And yes, Jonathon's new base flies off the number 26 runway most of the time.  (I have to tell you, I quite like having a personal airplane consultant at my beck and call)

26!

Little windshield wipers!

Finished Dash 8 Cake

Sadly, a propeller snapped off this morning.  Another lesson: make extras of everything!  I was tempted to pull off more to give each one only 3, but it wouldn't have been right. 

 No matter how much I plan, and take measurements, it's never quite spot on.  I'm very happy with the finished product, even if it isn't accurate and to scale.