Boot or Dress?!?!?!

I made this cake for my (soon to be) sister-in-law's lingerie shower. You may be wondering about my title and upside down picture. I'll explain. You see, when I first cut this cake to shape my grandfather said it looked like a cowboy boot. I couldn't really see it that way but whatever.By the time I was finished, he did agree that it look like a dress.

The cake was made to look like the party invitations. The cake was definitely a huge success. I was very happy with my work. I baked a half sheet cake of my standard yellow cake. Then I cut it to shape. Usually, I draw a sort of template out on parchment paper and then use that as a guide to cut the cake. I attempted to do that for this cake but I never was happy with the drawing, so I ended up doing it free hand. You can definitely tell that the sides are not symetrical, but oh well. I certainly don't think it looks too shabby :) I did discover that we need our kitchen knives sharpened. They did not cut the cake very straight. It nawwed up some of the sides. I had to straighten them out with a small, sharper knife.

One other problem I encountered was during icing the cake. I had to use a good amount of food coloring to get the icing the right color. When I iced the cake, I got some icing on the cardboard that the cake was sitting on. Normally with icing, it just wipes right off without leaving a mark, but because of all the food coloring it made pink marks on the cardboard. After fully icing the cake, I decided I would have to transfer it onto a new board. I got out two of my dad's giant spatuala's he uses for grilling. I put placed one under either side of the cake and successfully transfered it with very minimal damaged. I even impressed myself. It probably wasnt' too wise, but it worked!

This cake was quite an adventure and a whole lot of fun. It turned out wonderfully. Transforming a boot into a dress was no small feat, but I accomplished it. I believe I did it quite well too!

P.S. Anyone know how to sharpen kitchen knives??!??!