Movie Marquee Cake Tutorial

This Movie Marquee Cake Tutorial tells how I made this Movie Marquee Cake to celebrate the 70th birthday of someone who loves moves and attends hundreds of movie openings a year.    The customer requested a semi-naked cake with very little icing. I created a Movie cake topper to highlight the birthday person’s love of movies and cinema.   This tutorial contains my Amazon affiliate links to show the products that I used.  If you like this tutorial please use the links to purchase the supplies.

To Make the cake topper:

I found a shape I liked on the internet. Next I cut out the shape 2 times from foam board – One for the front and one for the back.  I glued jumbo skewers between the 2 foam board pieces to create the sign. Thirdly, I taped all of the edges together so the fondant would not go in between the 2 pieces. Fourthly,  I covered the sign in piping gel so the fondant would stick to the foam board.  

Fifthly, I rolled out fondant for the back of the sign and attached it.  Sixthly, I rolled out fondant for the front and sides of the sign and attached it using piping gel.

Seventhly, I cut out Tappit letters for the white part of the sign and placed them on using piping gel. Because I used Tappit letter cutters for the sign, their size dictated the size of the writing inside the white of the sign.

 Eightly, I cut out the red fondant top part of the sign and attached it using piping gel.  Ninethly, I cut out the workdCinema using Wilton letter cutters and rolled them to make them larger and the size I needed.

I also cut out circles using the patterned side of the Wilton circle cutters above.  In addition I used a star cutter on top of the circles to make the pattern above Cinema. Next I used an extruder to make the yellow border on the top and bottom of the sign.

To Make the Cake:

I used a 16 inch by 4 inch by 4 inch loaf pan to bake a carrot cake.  I made a cake board from foam board that exactly fit the cake and covered it in press and seal wrap. Next I cut the carrot cake into 3 separate layers and placed white chocolate ganache raisin filling between the layers. I placed a very thin coating of  white chocolate ganache icing on the top and sides to make it semi-naked cake.  

To Make the Cake Board:

I cut out a wooden piece of plywood into a 18 inch by 7 inch rectangle. Next I anchored the cake to the center using royal icing and  made and placed burgandy fondant bricks/ wood planks all around the cake.  I attached the bricks using piping gel. 

I used the Wilton Texture mould for cobblestone and wood planks to make the bricks.

To attach the sign to the cake:

I placed 3 straws over the Movie Marquee sign dowels and placed the straws into the cake. I needed to make sure the straws lined up exactly with the dowels.  Next I cut the straws off level with the top of the cake. I cut the dowels to a height about 1/4 inch off the cake.  I placed the dowels inside the straws so that I could add and remove the sign without getting cake all over the dowels. My straws where almost the same size as the dowels.  If the straws were slightly bigger, I would have put some fondant inside the straws to give a dowels a more snug fit.

For more cake and cookies birthday ideas, take a look at Between The Pages Creations.