I would like to do a skyscraper from cake, and I am struggling to do the small windows. If somebody has any ideas I would appreciate hearing them. Thanks.
By csaba from Alcester, UK
I love cake decorating! I've managed to make some pretty impressive looking cakes with almost no decorating tools. Here's my suggestion: I would use fondant instead of frosting. I don't know if you're familiar with fondant, but it's a paste that you can tint any color you need and shape it like modeling clay! I would cover the cake with a thin layer of frosting, then roll the fondant thin and cover the whole skyscraper with it. You can then either cut fondant windows (in a different color) and attach them where you want them (all you need is a drop of water and the fondant will stick together), or use some decorating markers and just draw the windows on the fondant.
Another idea would be to use thick icing and, with a star tip, cover the entire cake with "little stars" which would allow for the shapes of the windows to be well defined (since you're not smoothing the icing). But that could take way longer than the fondant. :-)
Try an acetate or cardboard stencil of windows, experiment with an offset spatula or somehow blowing colored sugar on the stencil. As I see it, you might have to lay the sides down one at a time. Good luck. Post a picture if you can.
Depending on overall size of the cake, you can use crushed cookies. I would use either an Oreo type or a plain colored cookie. They do make a chocolate cookie similar to vanilla wafers and you can trim them. Or use something as a frame (like a thin bead of icing) and fill in with the crushed cookies.
Try getting fruit by the foot and cutting small squares or rectangles from it, it would be great if you could get yellow or orange as it is more like lighted windows.
