A Hat Without A Cat

My first request for a Dr. Seuss 'Cat In the Hat' , hat.
No cat.
These are the cakes that make me nervous. They look almost too easy, this usually means I will be tearing it apart and re-doing it at 1:00 am.
I solicited a lot of advice from some other decorators, they made it sound and look easy.
The cake is going to be only a small part of a Dr. Seuss display for a little boy's 1st birthday.
I love creative parents, and I am thrilled to be a part of this project.
This hat has to be perfect so that I don't ruin their design...no pressure, no pressure at all. HA!
To make the hat I baked 6 - 8 inch funfetti cakes from scratch.
Funfetti cakes are really tricky, watch closely.
I use my White Cake Recipe...and throw in 1/2 a cup of rainbow Jimmies.
Yup, that's the secret, pretty amazing!  Haha!

For this cake I used Vanilla Bean Buttercream.

Save and print jpeg

I leveled all but the cake that would be on top of the hat.
I wanted it to be a little floppy and crooked.
Funny when you want a cake to be floppy and crooked it takes some creativity, but when you don't want a floppy , crooked cake it seems to just happen.

I stacked them on top of each other as 2 separate cakes.
So I filled 2 layers.
Doweled them.
Filled the last 2 layers , placed them on a 4 inch cake board and stacked them.

I let these settle overnight.
Then chilled them in the refrigerator to firm them up for carving.

I slightly carved 1 side to give the hat a little bend. <- This is why using only a  4 inch cake board is important,  a 6 inch would make it difficult to carve.
Then slowly, carve the top at an angle, sliver by sliver.
Remember you can always take some off, you cannot put it back on so carve little by little.

This is what I ended up with. ( resist eating the scraps Melanie, resist the scraps...)

I re-chilled the cake to firm it up again and then I iced the entire cake with buttercream.

First I covered the cake in white fondant. Important because you will be rolling the stripes so thin red would show through white stripes.

Next I made the top of the hat in red. Roll this VERY thin and apply with a little water.

Then I rolled out the red stripes, very thin, very, very thin. Thinner than I've ever rolled anything ever!

I applied the stripes to the hat with a little water for glue.

Last step, the black pin striping and accents. I wanted this hat to have an illustrated look.

I used Wilton Black Color Gel mixed with a little vanilla extract and painted it on very carefully with a thin paint brush.

" And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!"