Birthday on the RUN!

So I got a phone call from our good friend across the cul-de-sac who wanted to throw his wife a surprise party for her birthday.  He gave me complete freedom as far as the cake was concerned, so it's a good thing that I know the birthday girl really well.  I did have her kids come over and confirm that my idea was fitting, so after the go-ahead from them, I got down to business.

She loves to go running; she does the 3-day walk for breast cancer every year; she has a treadmill in her house that she actually uses (*gasp!*).  So, now I just had to figure out HOW to present a cake with running shoes.  When I baked the cake, I intended to make the base look like a treadmill.  But, it didn't quite work out because I didn't really want the cake black, and I didn't want to cover it in fondant (because she doesn't really like it that much, and neither do I), plus I simply didn't have the time to make it work.

My brilliant husband, who patiently watches episodes of "Cake Boss" and "Ace of Cakes" and all of the Food Network Cake Challenges with me, has obviously caught on to a few cake decorating tips and tricks (by osmosis, I suppose...), because he suggested making the shoes out of rice-krispie treats - just like the pros do. One advantage to doing this is that the decorations are lightweight and don't sink down into the icing or the cake.

No time to practice, just jump in with both feet!  I baked the cake, made the icing, bought the fondant, and made a recipe of Rice-Krispie treats.  Only then did I realize that they were HOT, and I needed to let them cool before trying to shape the shoes.  Not just because I'd burn my hands, but they were so sticky, and they would melt the fondant as soon as it came into contact with it.

Got the general shape of the shoes, including the hole where you'd put your foot. 

They look a little bit like clogs in their natural state, don't you think? :^)

Just the shoes.  I like how they turned out.

The color scheme came together very well, I thought. 

Ta-da!

Here you can kind see the stripes better...


And the birthday girl loved her cake.


The end.