#28: Apex Predator Cakes and Epoxy Horses

Hey guys! Calvin here just to give you a tad of a backstory. As a homeschooler, very dedicated to my studies and all that such, every once in a while (when the city turns off the water and I’m bored waiting for us to eat out) I gotta take a break right? So I was, erh, texting with a friend (don’t ask why she wasn’t doing school :P ) while looking at cake photos. It was then in that odd combination that I found a photo of a cake that wasn't the same ’ol, same ’ol cake style. I can’t even remember what cake I saw but it made me totally change our topic to—hold up, I’ll word for word it, ’cuz that’s not weird at all! (P.S. all my friends, y’all gotta watch out before handing me your number hah!)

Me: Guess what simple thing I just figured out!!! (Not to change the topic)

Friend: What???

Me: A cake... doesn't have to look like a cake! ! !!!

Friend: Yesssss??? So what’re you gonna make it look like instead?

(Clearly she wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was, huh?)

Me: I....... have no idea!! But there’s so many possibilities!!!! Any ideas?

Friend: A shark

Friend: Idk, why

(A full two minutes later—hey my genius brain was just brainstorming everything, cut me some slack!)

Me: A shark on the cake or as the cake—cuz I’m so smart and I figured out you can do both!

Friend: Nothing super crazy realistic, just like a cool little shark or little shark tail

Me: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

(Didn’t really answer my question, so I sent a pic comparing a cake with a shark topper or a shark head as the cake)

Me: Like, left or right?

Friend: Right!

I sent the exclamation mark bubble thingy on that message and thus an idea and love for cake carving and shaping was born! Thanks a ton, my friend, now I know how it started where I lost all my free time! (or what was left of it after practicing the guitar). Oh, and if you’re curious, that did totally change the topic, why’d you ask? I’m not copying and pasting any more of my convo! ... I see you with your pleading eyes—not happening, moving on!

My journey started. Not that day of course, I chose chess over cakes—gotta keep my brain shar-k-p, y’know? If I remember the timeline right, it wasn’t till two days later when I stopped just brewing the idea and put it into motion. By that I mean I compared recipes with Ai and brainstormed my own vanilla sponge cake one. Then put an assortment of ingredients all in a mixing bowl.... and.... I was late for one of my only social interactions I get which happened to be at my church's youth group so... it was either cake or friends.

Well, I’m sorry cake, it was nice knowing you—and hey wait a second! My mom looks pretty free right now! I gave her the reins and very politely asked her to watch up for over-mixing. (Later on she sent a photo of it in the Kitchen Aid mixer at what appears to be full speed 💀. You’re kinda supposed to fold in the liquids and drys so that you don’t get rid of the trapped air bubbles but hey who am I to complain!)

Then she texted “Looks good I guess” and “I should think this will overflow....” Not exactly the most comforting texts but I don’t think I cared. I was probably either playing the piano or trying to work up the courage to talk to a girl or something classic. Where was I? Aren’t you supposed to tell me when I go off track?! Oh well, either way it was totally fine, she had it under control. Thank you Mom!

Next up, baking: separate the mixed concoction in a big bowl and a slightly bigger bowl, plop those in the oven, grab a book and forget about it. Get totally invested in a gripping novel and just as grippingly get pulled out because your timer went off. Then off to the oven it is. Grab your shield of a hot pad and brandish your fork, then use your magical powers to press the button—stunning the interior with the flood of the light coming on.

Now’s your shot! Open forth thy door, oh, and try not to get incinerated by the army of heat marching to greet you. Eyes on target? Good, stab right in the middle. Then just as fluidly draw it back and check the blood... gritty and uncooked? Very well, close the door and leave it alone for it to collect its forces again. Back to your confused book waiting patiently for you.

And don’t forget another timer of ten minutes (you totally won’t undoubtedly forget that timer and end up possibly overcooking it by a whole five minutes, no, no, not here). I can only assume that is what happened that faithful night, as I still was not there to partake sadly. But don’t worry, I was chillin’, probably singing worship come to think of it? But moving on.

Take the cakes out. Don’t worry, they shouldn’t pose much of a threat being cooked through, but still don’t take chances. They might still have their shield up and that’s pretty hot to touch. This is about the time when Mom’s duty is done (we thank you for your service, brave soldier) and she can enjoy the last bits of night until us troublemaker kids come back.

When I got back, was I going to be sure to finish the cake just like that in like 10 minutes flat? Nope! I just had to wait for the perfect moment of everyone in the family settling down to watch a movie. That way I could cut and watch! (Don't worry about the light I had to turn on—it’s fiiine!) And so I saved the cakes from the fridge, dumped them out, stacked them up, and took my trusted knife to it.… I definitely kept every last scrap I cut and didn't try to sneak any to top off my dessert-less dinner… Okay fine, I did, but hey I also had to pay my family with something for me to intrude into the amazing movie.

Next up, fine, I’ll cut clean, was the hardest and most time consuming part of this cake. It was—drumroll please! T-h-e d-y-e-s, aïe. So I need red, blue, gray—but the last two were simple. Blue equals a lot of blue spirulina, gray equals just a tad—and done! … How about red? Beetroot powder, duh. What’s that? You don’t want to leave your house, is it? Hmmmm. I can’t say I have any powder here though. Oh well, time to be fun I guess.

Blueberries were my first idea for red though I thought they might be too purple. So a bit of digging later, I took out a sauce pan and put some blueberries in and simmered ’em. After that I strained them and separated the juice in two bowls with powdered sugar inside (just a bit to help thicken it). One adding a base (baking soda) and the other citrus. I was kinda disappointed with the results. The base one was kinda blue but also greenish, so no thanks. The other was pinkish purple which mayyyyyybe could work if need be, but quite a few steps, no?

Then I played more, this time with paprika and jelly to no avail and went back to my trusted blueberries. The final time, I believe I blended them up before simmering that juice. And that’s how I got the main look for the mouth. For the “lips” or that layer that holds the teeth, that was the blueberry with acid that I thought I wouldn’t use. (That’s why it looks a bit separated but, small details.)

I suppose it was about this time when I took some paper and made a cutout for the fin, then hacked one of my scrap pieces into shape. Then, dyes ready, I slather the cakes in droves. Then I stuck the also coated fin on, then put yet more icing locking it into place. Looking back at it now, I’m kinda surprised the fin stayed, but hey keep on doin’ your thing I’m not complaining one bit!

Teeth time! Back to the Ai recipe drawing board. Changed this and that from it and Italian dough was born. I made some good sized triangles and baked them. When I took it out, all pleased that only the tips burnt here and there, I measured it to the chilled mount of the cake. And… they're too big. By a loooooooong shot… oh-kay? I just cut off the semi-burnt tips and... new teeth! —Yay!

Got some old icing, plopped the teeth down and.. bingo? No, not that word. Ah ha—voilà! (Or “ta da,” take your pick.) Then I melted some chocolate (no, not the double boiler method—bruh, I was working on this cake for so long I just wanted to finish already!) Put some globs on it and my multicolored “toilet” (what Mom and Dad thought it was based on the shape—I didn’t tell them what I was making) had eyes.

It was done. Time to put it outside for pictures and let it melt—great idea! Next up we took it over to my grandfolks to see if they approved. Other than the “It looks scary,” I think they quite enjoyed it! Annnd I’m so done talking. Sorry folks, party’s over. That took so much longer to write than I expected, wow, anywho! Have a great day. Peace!

Thanks for sharing your story, Calvin. I learned a lot from that. Like how you think you’re under socialized and I almost killed your cake with my mixing skills. That was in February. He has baked a few more special shapes since then, including his brother’s 17th birthday cake. It was a Miami birthday cake covered to look like an ocean. The top had a gingerbread ship that used wonton sails affixed with caramelized sugar to bamboo stick masts. A kraken’s edible cookie dough tentacles emerge from the ocean and wrap around the ship. My mom and I helped him finish that pièce de résistance. Thanks again, Mom, for letting us go crazy in your kitchen!

Tristan’s Account of Making the Epoxy Horse:

Sorry in advance for being technical. This is just a way for me to document how it was done.

I began building the horse by finding a 3d model of a horse online. Then I sliced the horse (how you turn a 3d model into a code for the printer to understand) in a way that the printer would print it hollow. When the mold was done being printed I filled it with some West System epoxy as an experiment and guess what?! The epoxy started getting so hot from the curing process that it started smoking, boiling, and melting the plastic mold. That turned out to just be the experiment. Ok, now that I’ve learned something I can start the real deal. I found a horse model online that was a lot more detailed and more real-looking. Then in the slicing process I subtracted the model from a big rectangle so that the new horse mold would be perfectly proportional to the 3d model. I also added some holes and tubes to the high spots on the mold so I could fill it from there and also know that there’s no bubbles. When I finished designing the mold I printed it. This was one of my longest prints — it took about 20 hrs!

When the print was done, I did some rigorous leak testing and put several coats of paint to try to seal it. When I was happy with the mold I prepared the epoxy. I decided not to use the West System stuff as it got too hot too fast and instead used the epoxy that Felicity came with. I pre-measured the ratio of how much epoxy I’d need and put the 2 parts in separate cups so they wouldn’t start reacting. Then I split each of the 2 cups into 2 MORE cups and put a different color glitter in each cup. Then I stuck all 4 cups in the fridge so that when I mixed them they would take longer to heat up, henceforth minimize risk of disaster. When they were cool enough, I mixed the parts together except for the 2 colors, then poured them in the mold alternating the colors. I alternated colors hoping that they would form a marbling effect, but the colors just ended up mixing. After I completely filled the mold, I very professionally vibrated the mold (knocking it with a screwdriver) to get all the bubbles out.

Then I stuck it in the fridge. I was kinda paranoid about it literally going up in smoke. After it was hard, I took it out and finished the curing process by baking it (aka: sticking it in the Jeep in full sun, hahaha)!

Anyway, now the hardest part of building this thing... taking the mold off. I didn’t use any mold release on the inside of the mold — to my regret. It took a SOLID week of grinding , sanding, carving, accidentally breaking the tail off, and using a heat gun to try to peeeeel the printed mold off (btw, the heat gun would get the cast epoxy horse so hot it would get soft again and I would need to stop and let it cool before continuing). After painstakingly removing the mold from the cast horse I could begin finishing the surface and making it smooth! (I was very happy to finish getting the mold off and changing gears.)

At this point the horse’s pretty teal surface was lined with the 3d-printed layer lines that were inside the mold. To fair the horse, I sanded off the rough texture, then added a thin layer of epoxy to fill the low spots, and then I would sand it again. I did this about 3 times until I was happy with it. At this point the horse itself looked shiny and finished, but I did one more thing and added a few layers of UV protection spray as I didn’t want the horse to change colors from the sun.

As for the base of the sculpture, I used a piece of leftover exotic South American walnut that my grandfather had given me. (Thanks again, Gramps!) I cut it to shape (cutting through masking tape to ensure the edges stayed crisp), then used a router to give it a fillet on the top edge and drilled some holes for the horses’ feet to go in. Finally, I sanded it with high grit sandpaper to make the surface smooth and sealed it with polyurethane, then glued the horse in. I also woodburned some text and a date on the bottom, DONE!

Ooohhh, that’s a lot of text. I wasn’t planning on writing that much. Mom just wanted me to explain how I made the horse. I got carried away :) All in all, I enjoyed making the horse.