For Mason’s birthday party this Saturday he has requested an Xbox cake. I have volunteered to create the cake. Did I mention I’ve never really decorated a cake before? For the uninitiated, this is what a real Xbox looks like:

One thing I’ve always been really good at is charactures. The secret involves looking at a person or item picking out unique parts and then emphasizing them (my team always won in Pictionary and Win, Lose or Draw). When looking at that Xbox, I think the key features are: black, green circle on top, roughly rectangular.

After searching Google, I’ve discovered two things. #1, Xbox cakes aren’t all that rare, and #2, there are some really good looking ones out there. Most of these seem to use fondant — that thick stuff they use on some wedding cakes (and all those cake competition shows). What I didn’t know before I started researching this cake is, most people don’t eat fondant. They pick it off before eating the cake. How dumb is that? I don’t want to make a cake that you can’t eat! A tasty alternative I’ve run across is a marshmallow-based fondant which apparently also works and is tasty as well. Unfortunately, I’m not sure learning a new cake technique the day before the cake is due is the best idea. This time around I’m going to stick with the basics.

Here are a few Xbox cakes I found via Google. Looks like I am up against some stuff competition.

I’ll post pictures of mine tomorrow, regardless of how it turns out.