Meet "Mars" the Bulldog!

A cake designed to travel...by plane!

I have to confess it, I love challenges.

Four years ago, when I started this small business, I thought that I would be getting to a point where I would do so much repetitive work, you know, same themes...same techniques...I couldn't be more wrong!
Each client, for the past four years, has brought to me a new and unique challenge. After all, each celebration is unique!

A new client, who had been referred by one of my most beloved repeat clients, approached me with the challenge to make a graduation cake that had to travel by plane.
As you may imagine, she wanted to incorporate typical elements of a graduation cake: a mortar board, a diploma, etc.
I have recently completed my first sculpted cake ("Gigi" for an SPCA event)...and I wanted an excuse to explore more sculpted work!

The recipient of the cake was graduating from Vanderbilt University and had been offered a position on a Petcare branch of a large company....so the idea of incorporating a sculpted dog came to mind!. The selection of the breed was ano brainer because my client and her family are Bulldog lovers..."Bulldogs are an acquired taste",  said my client at our tasting and consultation meeting. 

I perfectly know what she was talking about, because my dad had one when I was in Highschool...and oh my, where to start? . His name was "Lawyer".

Sculpting the dog was not overly complicated. I had a collection of images that I had downloaded from the web, that assist me in understanding features and proportions.
The problem I had was that with the intention of replicating the foldings and crevices of a real bulldog, I had made this one look MAD; so mad that it looked that it was about to attack you!!!

I immediately thought about my client's reaction while opening the cake cooler!
Softening its features gave me some grief, but it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about sculpted work.

I wanted to achieve a "bored" and "sleepy" look on Mars face....adding more eyelids, and softening his forehead did the job!

For those of you curious on "how to transport a cake by air", I can share that I only offer this service when it will be conducted by private transportation. 
The cake travels refrigerated on a cake cooler until its final destination. there are some bakers and designer that I follow and admire that do this via public transportation, but I haven't been able to figure out how they do it!

I hope that you enjoyed reading these lines. Thank you for your interest and time, it is an honor to share my sugar adventures with you!

You can see a full gallery of pics of this cake visiting:
Sugar Realm, Designer Cakes Cincinnati - Vanderbilt Bulldog Graduation Cake

Always best, I.