It's a piece of cake!

I've just come from the dentist (dramatic sigh), and it's not great news.  I have two old fillings from my teenage years that have allowed a bit of decay beneath their protective covering, so both need to be drilled and re-filled.  It would seem like a simple procedure, except that I have the misfortune of having both an incredibly low tolerance for pain (i.e. the "big baby" syndrome) and a virtual inability to get numb with oral injections.  A basic filling has traditionally meant over two hours in the chair, getting shot after ineffective shot...over ten a tooth.  My last dentist in Indianapolis was the only one who was able to fully numb me, and now, of course, we live in another state. 

After robotically scheduling the follow-up appointment, I allowed myself a brief cry in the safety of the parking lot before pulling myself together.  I decided three things:

1)  Fast food for supper tonight.
2)  4 p.m. is NOT too early to put on flannel pajamas when you're feeling sorry for yourself.
3)  If I was going to do the blog, I was going to do something fun.

What is more fun than CAKE?  Cake has nothing to do with pain or teeth or useless injections.  Hooray for cake!  This particular cake, too, never gets stale.  It has ZERO calories, and you can slap a stamp on it and put it in your mailbox, and it will most assuredly be picked up (but not consumed) by your mail carrier and taken to the destination address.  This is the incredible non-edible cake!

You need:
- a sponge
- a serrated knife
- caulk
- pastry bag
- spray paint
- spray adhesive
- cardboard or thick paper

First, you need a sponge or two.  We picked these up at Lowe's.

Take a serrated knife and cut each sponge at an angle so that it resembles a wedge of cake.

With the same knife (and maybe some scissors), cut a little valley in the middle of the cake.  This is where the "icing" will go.  It doesn't have to be very deep.

Next, spray your sponges down with the spray paint.  Want to make chocolate cake?  Use brown.  Strawberry?  Pink.  Vanilla?  White.  You get the idea!

I let mine dry overnight before doing a second application.  You don't want any of the yellow to show through.

Take one of your dry wedges and trace its shape onto a piece of thin cardboard or stiff paper, and then cut out the shape.  Use your spray adhesive to fasten it to the flat side of your cake slice.  Let it dry for a few hours.

Apparently there's a device called a 'caulking gun' which forces caulk to flow smoothly out with minimal effort.  I just stomped on mine, which wasn't nearly as effective.  Still, I was able to get enough caulking into the pastry bag to get the job done.  One tube of caulk will probably be enough for two or three slices of cake.

Once you have your pastry bag filled, snip off the end.  Exert pressure and fill the center well of the cake with caulking.  Next do the top and sides of the cake, just like you'd ice a real cake.  Give it some decorative swirls and flourishes.  You can use a small paint brush to achieve this effect, too.  Be careful not to drip caulk onto the cardboard side...it dries really fast.

Let your cake slice dry for 3 - 5 days, lifting it from time to time so that it doesn't stick to the surface it's resting on. 

Ta da!

It looks just like a REAL piece of cake.  When it's dry, you can stamp and address the flat side.  When estimating postage, treat it as a package and not a letter.  It should only cost a couple of dollars to mail.

It seems improbable, but this really will be delivered as-is.  And it really does look just like a real piece of cake!

Wouldn't this be fun to send to someone who's having a birthday or some other celebratory event...or even just having a bad week?  The possibilities are endless!

I hope you have a great crafting week, free from the drama of treacherous teeth!