Hot air balloons intrigue me.

I mean, come ON.  A gigantic balloon, flying through the sky...carrying human beings?

WHAT?  I don't know.  I just do NOT know.

The whole idea of it is amazing and terrifying, all wrapped up in one very large, gorgeous, intimidating package.

And probably because of said intrigue, I've been wanting to make a hot air balloon cake ever since I started this whole cake gig.  But I couldn't quite nail down a clear vision of how I wanted to make it.  (Structure?  Simple?  2D on the side of a cake....or a sculpted 3D version?)
It wasn't coming to me.

So I neatly tucked the thought into the brain-box labeled, "When I Get This Figured Out" and went on my merry way.

About a month ago,  I came across this gorgeous, watercolor, hot air balloon themed invitation floating around the interwebs...

and it jump started my brain back to life (sometimes it sleeps like the dead, I tell you) and started instantly making demands.

"You WILL make this into a cake."

"You will make this into a cake SOON."

"If you don't make this into a cake soon I will never work for you AGAIN."

Demands of that sort.

So I went back to that WIGTFO box tucked neatly away in my grey matter, pulled open the flaps,

 and low and behold, this hanging, 3D sculpted hot air balloon cake idea burst forth... hovering there, impatiently staring me down.

Cheeky little thing.

It made its own way around, down and out of my mouth, through the air and straight into Thomas's ear, forging its way up into HIS brain.

Where it puttered around a bit until it became fully formed and implementable.  (Thomas being our Cakeheads engineer and all.)

I questioned. (Umm... worried.  I worried.)

But I forged ahead. (We.  Thomas and I.  WE forged ahead 'cause I was not about to do this one alone.)

And (quite miraculously) all worked out remarkably well!

Thus, a hanging hot air balloon cake was finally born. 

And eaten. (K, that sounds weird.)

And...has put my brain back to sleep.

Which, fortunately, I'm currently ok with. :) Xx

(Click HERE to see a little video of this hanging, hot air balloon cake being cut!)

Some cake tips:

To make the sparkly feathers (which you can't see very well in the full project photos, I know.  Poop.)...

I cut a feather shape through two pieces of wafer paper.

I lightly wet one side of one of the feathers, placed a white wire down the center of it and then lined up the other matching feather over top of both and pressed them gently together over the wire.

I then cut little slits through both side edges of the feather, from top to bottom, at an angle.

I mixed some Saracino edible powder pearl dust with some Everclear (or you can use high proof vodka) to create a pearly paint, and brushed that onto the feathers....and then quickly sprinkled some white NFD Flash dust (edible glitter!) over top before the paint dried. 

Then, I boiled a pot of water on the stove and held the feathers over the steam rising from the pot until they started to curl just a bit to give them some movement.

Before inserting them into the cake, I dipped the wires into some melted Safety Seal to make them food safe!

The full, hanging hot air balloon cake project video tutorial can be found in the Cakeheads project center and is available with a Cakeheads membership!

The video tutorials showing how to make easy wafer peonies and anemones are also in the Cakeheads project center and are accessible with a Cakeheads membership!