Mexican Hat Cake

I recently was asked to make a Mexican hat for a Mexican theme birthday party. 

The only problem was that I was given barely a day's notice so had not enough time to dry the hat's brim.

The good part was that the sample cake picture sent to me had a completely flat brim with similar designs. 

The original plan was to make a 7" cake as a doom for the hat but later that was changed to a 9" cake as such, I had to re-do it twice to accommodate a bigger cake.

So that means I am able to share both my attempts with you. I also tried two different techniques to see which works best. Now, both the methods below are correct and can be used depending on the size of your cake.

You will need a plate that curves upwards like a soup bowl but not too much...(Like the one in the picture below). Line it with parchment or baking paper.  The bottom of your cake pan to use as a guide for cutting out the center of the brim.
Gum paste / Fondant. - Here I'm using 100% gum paste with the hope that it might dry faster but it also will crack at the edges as you  can see, so time permitting do the brim in advance and use either 50/50 or 50/70 fondant/gum paste ratio.

Below is my first attempt - as planned for the 7" cake circle.
Roll out your gum paste. Using your plate as a guide cut out the brim's circumference first.

Next, using your cake circle cut out the center of the brim. This is where your cake will be placed.

This is what you should have.

Next, I used this shell tool to create a design for my brim. You can leave it plain or do something else you prefer.

Now, before you remove the center circle flip the whole thing on to the pate.
I suggest you leave the center circle in place for at least an hour or so. Why? If you do remove it earlier the inner edge gets distorted a bit. (ask me how I know?)
You might waste a little gum paste but I would still recommend it. Don't leave it too long though or you might crack the edge when picking off the circle too. An hour or two would be good in my opinion.

I wanted the edges to be raised up a bit on my brim so I rolled some aluminum foil into logs and placed them on the outer edges so they would hold up. Like so.

Leave to dry for a couple of days.

Below is my second attempt - when the cake size increased to a 9" cake.
Same technique of rolling out the gum paste and border design.
However, I did not cut the center circle.
Also I did not have the plate size that I wanted. I still used one side larger but instead of placing the brim inside the plate's surface to dry. I placed it on the flip (back) side of the plate.
The reason I did not cut the inner circle until about 2 to 3 hours because I knew the edges would stretch outwards. I hope I am making sense to you.

This is how it would look if you placed it on the back side of the plate to dry. Later I cut out the inner circle with an exact-o knife. (Sorry the picture didn't come clear)
Once dried flip it on the cake board. I suggest you cover you cake in fondant and do as much of your design work on the hat before you place the cake in the center. Just to avoid any cracking (Of course you could also do an extra brim to be safe)

Well, here's my cake.
As you can see, I was disappointed after all that hard work the brim did not have time to dry and I did not get the effect I was looking for.
Though I was happy that the people who ordered the cake were looking for just this. They wanted a flat brim and these designs as was in the picture they sent me.
If the customer is happy - mission accomplished. Right?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my post. Until next time.
Happy cake decorating.
Veena
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Veena Azmanov

Veena's Art of Cakes

Unforgettable Cakes for memorable occasions

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