I need to make a cake that looks like an airplane.

May 3, 2013 5:03 AM

My friend just got his pilot's license and I have been commissioned among our group of friends to construct an airplane-shaped cake in celebration of this event. I already have the plane-shaped cake tin, but I need some help with the cake decor.

I was thinking of inserting the candles horizontally behind the wings to mimic the engines at take off, but what else can I do to make the plane cake look extra-plane like? Was thinking of putting it on a square baking tin or something so I can also construct a runway around the cake (in icing? in something?), but other than that, I am out of ideas for how to make this thing look special. What colors should I use? A gray cake sounds disgusting. Any more creative Me-Fites have anything to help?

posted by half life to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

I would make the cake white, not grey, and use those silver sugar pill thingies as rivets. Put some bright lettering on the plane's tail, like the name of your friend. Maybe you can use some silver marzipan for details.

Also I would put it on a blue cakeboard and add white cloud cookies.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:10 AM on May 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

And when you slice it up? What will it look like then? Pilots are as superstitious as sailors and a cut-up airplane doesn't seem like perhaps the best cake idea. A t-shirt with the back cut out?
posted by three blind mice at 5:12 AM on May 3, 2013

I'd go for wipping cream clouds and maybe a lego pilot. Or have a longer stand to put it on and use candles as the markers at the edge of the runway.
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 5:14 AM on May 3, 2013

Maybe a picture of friend's face cut out for the tail of the plane (instead of an airline logo). If you do the runway, maybe you can have a Tower as well, just to add to the airport feel.

Or abandon the gray runway and use blue with some marshmallow clouds.
posted by backwards guitar at 5:14 AM on May 3, 2013

Best answer: Most small planes are white with a colored pinstripe down the side. Also, navigation lights - red on the left wing, green on the right wing, and a red beacon on the tail. You might try adding decorative antennas on top - small airplanes like what he's flying often have a couple blade antennas and, depending on the age, an AM radio antenna that is essentially a long wire strung between the top of the tail and the top of the cockpit.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:21 AM on May 3, 2013

Do you know anything about the plane he flew when working on his pilot certificate? It would have a tail number on the side (in the US, they start with "N") - would be nice to include that on the airplane cake.
posted by exogenous at 6:22 AM on May 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Wilton's decorating style is to cover everything with little stars of icing, which is adorable for kids, but kind of funny-looking for something grown-up and mechanical. You could make marshmallow fondant, which would give a nice smooth finish. You can then buy metallic or pearlescent powder to make the fondant look metallic.

The pan from Wilton is kind of cartoony (there are other ways to get a more lifelike airplane shape, but you've got the pan, and it's cute, so go with it.). This decorator uses a similar cartoon-shaped airplane pan but paints engines under the wings, which I think looks cool.

Shaped cake pans often don't use the whole box/batch of cake mix, so if you have batter left over, make cupcakes with clouds or birds. (example, example) Or this cute one that's flying a banner ("Congratulations Pilot Friend!") behind the plane.
posted by aimedwander at 9:05 AM on May 3, 2013

Response by poster: ah you guys are the best. this is all really helpful, especially the cupcake clouds (or making sky surroundings in general -- don't know why i didn't think of that) and I didn't know anything about navigation lights -- thank you all so much :)
posted by half life at 9:13 AM on May 3, 2013

if it were me making this cake: those windows look ideal for a little frosting portrait of your friend...screaming as the plane goes down in flames...flames which spread back from the wings, onto the cupcake clouds...enhanced with candles
if they have colored saran wrap (blue) at the grocery...wrap the serving tray in foil, then colored saran wrap for a sparkly blue sky...you might also look for blue colored foil, but its likelier to be at the crafts/specialty baking store/floral design store than the grocery...
posted by sexyrobot at 11:08 AM on May 3, 2013

If you want to put a propeller on the nose, make it out of hard candy. You can make and shape it yourself, but it's easiest to crush Jolly Ranchers or the like into a powder, arrange the powder into the right shape on a parchment, an apply heat judiciously. Uniform thickness is the key to make this work. Putting the candy into a mold would work as long as you have a plan for releasing it from the mold.

I made a shape once and some of the candy ran a bit, so I warmed it until it wasn't brittle, trimmed with kitchen shears, and then (now off the parchment) used a lighter to smooth the edges.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:16 PM on May 3, 2013