Coors Can Cake

It's my friend Shawn's birthday!  His finace' asked if I'd make him a birthday cake...of course I will!  Later, she asked if it could be beer-themed (Shawn works with me at the beer distributorship).  Challenge accepted!  After a bit of back and forth chit-chat, we decided that I would make a cake to look like a can of Coors beer.  Now, I've never done something like this...but I figure there's a first time for everything...right?!  Cross your fingers, because here we go!

 

After a bit of planning, I decided that my cake would be made by stacking to rectangular cakes and carving from there.  I started by baking two pumpkin spice cakes and letting them cool completely.  After cooling, I added a layer of buttercream to one cake and topped it with the second cake.  I didn't cut the top layer to a smooth straigh surface.  I figured that hump in the middle (caused by the cake rising during baking) would work in my favor as I tried to create a cylinder shape for the can.  I put the layered cakes in the freezer to harden a bit before trying my hand at cake carving for the very first time.

I spent a bit of time on Pinterest and found what looked to be a yummy recipe for making my own findant.  I've used store-bought fondant before, but it tastes terrible.  I was hoping to use something that would taste sweet and yummy, but would be pliable and easy to use like fondant.  My discovery:  Homemade fondant using marshmallows, powdered sugar and water.  This fondant is pretty simple to make, but definitely a bit of work (and a bit messy to make).  If you have the patience and the desire, I definitely suggest making your own fondant instead of buying it at the store...it tastes SO much better!  After getting my fondant to the perfect consistency, I separated and added coloring to get all of the colors I would need to make the Coors can.

Once my cake spent about an hour in the freezer, it was time to start carving. Although I'd been thinking about my plan for about a week, I really didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I just kept carving small pieces off the sides until I had what looked like a half cylinder shape.  (looking back, I could have probably made some sort of jelly-roll cake and simply cut it in half length-wise). 

Once I had my base, I covered the cake with a layer of buttercream, then started adding my fondant to build my cake.

 

Using a picture of a Coors can, I just layered the different pieces until I was happy with the way it looked.  I was pretty proud of myself for hand-cutting a pop tab at the top of the cake!  Once I was happy with the findant, I used my decorating bag and colored buttercream to add the words. 

At the cake shop, I'd discovered silver decorating powder. What a fun concept!  Simply mix the powder with a bit of vodka (the liquid evaporates quickly making it easy to use) and paint on some edible color.  This is what I used for the top and bottom of the can to look like aluminum.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way the cake turned out.  And Shawn liked it too!



Bonus Note:  What did I do with all of the extra pieces of cake that I'd cut away during the carving section of my project?  Cake pops of course!