Can anyone help with this cake please?

[TheOneWithTheHair]

I want to make something like this X-wing cake for ds2's birthday but I'm struggling as to what to make the wings out of and how to get them to stay in the X shape.

Any ideas gratefully received.

I did something very similar when DS was little and used wafers for the wings. Trimmed them to shape and added them at the last minute so they stayed firm and in place for the photos and the candle blowing!

I did think of wafers. Can I just buy flat ones in the supermarket do you know?

I wonder if they'd hold up with a thin layer of icing on?

Thank you for the reply. :)

Put a long wooden skewer underneath each one to hold them in place.

Or make them out of icing!

I worry the icing won't be sturdy enough though. Or too heavy to stay up.

A tip from Grand Designs (odd I know!) but Kevin was demonstrating how laminates are strong. He stuck several wafers together with, in his case, glue but thin hard-setting icing would work. You need to stagger the joins.

I think he had a sandwich of 4 wafers and the "board" was strong enough to hold one of those small bottles of water.

That sounds brilliant SoupDragon!

Right I'm going with wafers. Just need to find them now.

Sold in my local supermarket with all the ice cream sauces and toppings section.
Good luck!

Great. Thanks. :)

Worth a look on youtube. I did have a look, couldn't find an x-wing cake, but there are a few "how-to" videos on there

I would absolutely use flat wafers from this! Remember that they don't "slice" I cut them for my cakes with a scalpel. Also edible glue is good but if you're crazy confident then melt some sugar and use it as "glue" as it dries rock solid!!! I would make the wings about an inch longer than I needed and insert the extra inch inside the cake for added support, IME trying to 'attach' something like that externally is an absolute nightmare!!!

I would probably cover them in thin sugar paste and attach them

Edible glue? Where can I get that from please? Never heard of it!

Right. Found some. I'm going shopping. I'll put a pic on if I'm successful. It will be done by Friday.

Theonewithhair, just looked at the pic, the wings when you've made them would probaly be best stuck with royal icing as it dries really hard, know the easiest way to use royal icing is to buy it in a box ( which can be found in the gran sugar/ or icing sugar aisle in the supermarket, it comes in a white and blue box clearly marked royal icing, it looks exactly like icing, use a few spoonfuls and add a tiny drop of water and keep adding till you get a stiff paste, use it to attach your wings, personally i dont think edible glue will be strong enough to hold. I make cakes all the time ( 3 last week) but its up to you.

Theonewithhair, just looked at the pic, the wings when you've made them would probaly be best stuck with royal icing as it dries really hard, know the easiest way to use royal icing is to buy it in a box ( which can be found in the gran sugar/ or icing sugar aisle in the supermarket, it comes in a white and blue box clearly marked royal icing, it looks exactly like icing, use a few spoonfuls and add a tiny drop of water and keep adding till you get a stiff paste, use it to attach your wings, personally i dont think edible glue will be strong enough to hold. I make cakes all the time ( 3 last week) but its up to you.

Or like titchy said make them out of sugar paste, but not just ordinary sugarpaste it has to be modelling paste or flowerpaste which dries hard. both can be found in a cake decorating shop if you have one anywhere near you.

Thanks nannycook. I've actually got some flower paste. I got it in the supermarket.

Thank you all for your ideas. I am going to give it a go today. I probably won't finish until late but I'll keep you posted.

Good luck with it. I have a New York themed cake and cupcakes to make next weekend, not sure how to do that tho.

Lots of tall cake!?!

Well I did it. It was ok but more importantly ds2 loved it. Thank you for all your help. Picture on profile for anyone interested. :)

well done, thats very good, i hope your pleased with yourself?