A Root Beer Truck and Skippy :)

This is the cake I made for my brother's birthday party on Tuesday. He wanted an old truck, and wanted his theme to be root beer floats - and his dog, Skippy. So, I invented an A&W root beer delivery truck from 1949 - a Ford F-2. I found a reference pic of the Ford delivery truck, and a pic of the A&W logo from around that time, and married the two...As with the last cake, I painted the picture (using food coloring & vanilla extract) on rolled out white modeling chocolate. He loved the result, and it was so much fun!! :)

                                                                   Root beer logo detail...

Ford F-2 - classy looking trucks! My grandpa owns a standard pickup - I painted a picture of it (not on a cake) which you can see here.

And Skippy!!! Our family -and especially my brother's-Border Collie. :)

60th Anniversary

       This cake has quite a story behind it...you'll understand the picture better when I tell you. :)

Over 60 years ago, there was a young girl who lived on a small farm in the country, and she had long dark braids - so long she could sit on them! She was about 14 and rode a bicycle wherever she needed to go.
There was a young man living not too far away; he was 17 and quite a spunky fellow, and worked on his family's farm.

One fine day, the girl was riding her bicycle to town, braids flying merrily behind her, when suddenly - OW!
The young man had been sitting in a car parked beside the road, saw her coming...and couldn't resist the temptation to reach out and tug those long braids.
"She was the prettiest girl I ever saw!" he says today, "Still is. But now she's mean!" he teasingly adds, and she laughs.

Yes, he has been married to her for 60 years now. At the time of the braid incident, he told a friend who was with him, "I'm going to marry that girl!" to which his friend replied, "Not that one, you're not!"
At first, one would think his friend was right - she didn't want anything to do with "that wild boy". :) But time changes things, and he wasn't so wild after all, and they fell in love and were married. :)

This couple is very dear to me - although they are not really related, they have known me since I was a baby, and I went to stay at their house sometimes when I was a toddler. I call them "Grandma and Grandpa Moo-Cow" because when I was about two, I loved to stand at their front door and call to their "moo cows" grazing in the field in front of their house. They always called me their "Moo-Cow baby". :) They are the sweetest people, and I was so glad to have the opportunity to do this cake for them! :)

      Now for the details: the cake was chocolate and yellow with buttercream, and I covered the top in a sheet of white modeling chocolate. Then I traded my chef's hat for an artist's beret...I painted the top like a watercolor, but instead of water, I used almond extract (some people prefer vodka, but almond or clear vanilla is what I use, and besides - it smells a-MAZ-ing!) and gel food coloring, and painted the picture - some from reference (the car is a 1951 Chevy Bel-Air) and some from my imagination.