Fish cake

My friend "the wife" asked me if I could do a cake for her husbands 50th birthday and it had to be "sumfin to do with fishin". 

So off I went into a google frenzy and decided to make a kind of "mounted trophy fish" with a wooden plaque background and a metal plate announcing the name and age...

So I started by icing a large rectangular board approx 24" long with sugar paste coloured with autumn leaf.  Then I began by giving it a dark brown/autumn leaf wash, then I began painting the wood grain detail with dark brown.  All the washes and detail were paste colour with rejuvenating spirit or a few drops of clear alcohol.

Next up was the cake itself.  I had baked 2x 9" square chocolate cakes and cut the detail out by placing them side by side and using the off cuts for the fins and tail.  (I detest waste)

I then covered the body with a pale green (mint green with a touch of autumn leaf) and cut out lots of 2cm circles from other various colours and stuck them on to mimic scales.  The fins were covered with egg yellow/autumn leaf and then scored to add texture. 

The mouth was created by using a bone tool to make indentation.  I then gave the scales a very light wash of water before adding some iridescent glitter. 

This was then finished off with a black 15 mm ribbon for the board and a plaque for his name and age.  Simples!

A Rat Is Born

I briefly mentioned my plans for poor Sh@g at work and my boss became suddenly very excited.  He loves a bit of tinkering and backyard chemistry!  I couldn't rust my car because all the panels are plastic, so that would mean a bit of jiggery pokery!  We did some research and found that other people had bought a rusty solution from someone on ebay, but sadly they no longer do it.  Then we found Dulux Australia make a rusty paint.  Sadly not available in the UK.  So off my boss went into his man shed and began playing with paint and iron...  Here is a test strip made out of a bit of old wood...  all we had to do was spray it with lemon and salt and wait.

Then lo and behold one of the samples rusted!  We had made our own rusty wood!  It was also weather proof.  Bonus!

This particular finish was created by simply painting the wood and sprinkling iron filings on the wet surface.  When dry spray with a lemon and salt solution for fast rusting.

So off I went to the bosses house for a day of ratting and tinkering.  As you can see we did lots of prep (we used a sheet and wire wool on the surface)




Then we used an outdoors metal/plastic paint in a fetching NATO green and sprinkled iron filings over the top.  This used about 750g to do the whole bonnet.

Then sprayed with lemon juice and vinegar!  Et viola!  

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Next up was the rear doors... I decided a fetching newspaper collage would be highly effective in my journey to rat-dom, so various newspapers, a brush and a pva-water solution finished off with some varnish I found in the shed.

Next was sticker bombing...  After researching how much stickers were going to cost me.... HOW MUCH!?  I decided to trial making my own using waterproof printable vinyl.  It was an initial success, but after a week and harsh sun, the UV had unfortunately faded them... back to the drawing board!

So after spending less than £15  I now have a semi-rat!  There is still much much more to do, but I am feeling rather pleased with myself about the current rat progress!  As I am driving along I get people pointing and giggling.  When its parked up people come over to have a look and chat to me about it.  I have only met one person who was grumpy about it and told me my stickers were illegal.... erm ok.  

But the general consensus is they love it.  They love the fact that its wacky and they love the fact that its different.  After all, if we were all the same the world would be a very boring place don't you think?

So if I can make someones morning by having them giggle at my car, then I am one happy bunny :-)