Spartacus Cake

I was asked to make a Spartacus cake for a birthday. I was emailed an image of the sort of thing that was wanted and this is the final product!

Two tiers (one carved) of chocolate sponge with chocolate butter-cream in between the layers. Then I covered the cake with light grey sugarpaste. I then cut out 'rock' shapes and painted them, and painted some on the flat cake surface too.

I brushed the cake with edible glue and sprinkled biscuit crumbs onto the glue to help them stick. The plaque was made out of grey icing which I allowed to harden and then I painted the wording onto that.

The helmet and sword shapes were made a week beforehand and I added some gum tragacanth to help them set. Once the pieces had hardened I used edible glue to stick them together and  painted them with edible metallic dust (and some vodka to make it into a pain type mixture!). I painted the pieces and let them dry.

The 'blood' is a little strawberry jam heated in the microwave and drizzled onto the 'sand'.

The cake did take a while to do and I found it quite tricky to ice because of the shape but I really enjoyed the challenge and trying something different!

On a separate note... we popped to the beach again today and I treated myself to this...

How could I not! Rainbow colours and thick and sturdy and a lovely big size. Happiness in the form of a windmill!