Marvin the Martian...and his canine friend

A few weeks ago I received a phone call that went something like this:

Me: Hello?

Kazz: Hi, you don't know me but I got your number from your 'other mother'.

Babs is my 'other mother' - she's my friend Ben's mum and since my mum lives far away she often stands in for her when I need a heart to heart and a glass of wine. Kazz and Babs are good friends, and when Kazz mentioned she needed a cake for her dad's 60th birthday, Babs recommended me.

Kazz's dad hates Marvin the Martian...so Kazz thought it would be hilarious to get him a cake of Marvin the Martian and his dog. Funny girl! I like it!

I baked two cakes - one in a regular 23cm round tin, and the other in my trusty round Pyrex bowl (this saves carving the rounded top). I sandwiched the cakes with buttercream and carved the bottom cake into a ball shape (keeping a good base on it so the cake wouldn't roll off the board!)

After covering the cake with buttercream I created some little round craters to sit under the fondant (I just rolled small fondant ropes and formed them into circles). I then covered the cake with green fondant and used my ball tool to indent the craters.

I used brown, silver and ivory lustre dusts on the craters and then got my steamer to splatter a little water on the cake. I dabbed the excess off and was left with some pretty cool looking craters!

I sculpted Marvin, the dog and the spaceship out of fondant with cellogen added to firm them up.

Happy 60th birthday!