However the watering can just looked a little bit droopy :( Attempt number 2 went a lot better and was deemed good enough to be used on the cake along with some cute duckies that got made in the mean time.
We also made some small flowerpots and croquet markers/balls for decoration before starting work on the main cakes.
The '8' was a plain sponge cake and the '0' chocolate. Both had a Milka ganache and italian meringue buttercream filling with the same ganache used for the crumb coat. Once the ganache had set slightly in the fridge we covered the cakes with sugarpaste and added the final decorations.
Our first attempt at grass went horribly wrong, the heat meant the sugarpaste was too soft and squidged through the sieve rather than creating the individual grass strands seen on the flowerpots. Having loads of buttercream left over we dyed it green and covered the top of each cake, poking it with a paintbrush to give it a more textured look. We then added the croquet markers, balls and mallets to the 8 before hitting our next disaster.
It all appeared to be going very well, we made a thick semi liquid substance from arrowroot, water and blue food colouring to act as the water in the 'pond' on the 0. It ended up semi transparent and looked the part when poured into the center of the 0. We added a duck, who promptly sunk and then was accidentally be-headed during his rescue. At least the other 3 ducks were ok! Then it got worse, the 'pond' starting melting the sugarpaste, dissolving it in a watery sugary gloop. It had to be scooped out and the hole filled with blue tinted buttercream instead. Below you can see photos of the original 'water' and its replacement. Luckily the ducks floated on the replacement and can now be seen happily swimming in their pond.
After the final few decorations were added the cake was packaged for its journey across the Solent on the hovercraft.
