I had never made a laptop cake before, so I tried to research what others before me had done... both the successes and failures... I'm always trying to avoid catastrophic cake events.
The "screen" was the only part of the cake that was not for consumption- I used a cardboard sheet as the base, used chocolate to "glue" huge wooden skewers to the back (to later affix to the cake itself), and a handy dandy laminated printout of the lolcats image... then covered it in fondant (and even got a little "Apple" icon on the reverse side!)
The "keyboard" and base cake were yellow cake with vanilla buttercream icing. The keyboard also had Satin Ice fondant as the main covering, and Duff's fondant for the little keys. I typically make my own fondant, but since I would be "painting" the cake with edible silver spray, I used a pre-made fondant to get a perfectly smooth surface to spray. The 77 (yes- I did count them all) typewriter keys were made from Duff's BLACK fondant and royal icing to draw the white symbols. Making the keys perfectly proportioned and straight was my biggest goal- I had seen so many computer cakes that just looked really sloppy when it came to the keyboard, and that is just something that I knew I could avoid.
I have to thank K for sending me copies of the photos she took of the fully assembled cake- due to transportation concerns, I kept all three pieces separate until they made it safely to their destination :) Good job getting it all put together, K :)
I was glad to hear that everyone enjoyed the cake- it's a very nice feeling to be able to make someone's day with something that I made :) Happy Birthday... or should I say, Hapi Birfday? :P
