Hi everyone!
In this video, you will learn to create a fabulous, fun, (and not too difficult, I promise) circus tent!
We’ve been making modeled circus character tutorials for over a week now and they really needed a place to call home. Finally, with this tent, they have one! This video is for our Circus Tent only, so make sure to find our other tutorials listed below for a clown, elephant, seal, lion, and poodle! ;0)
Have fun!
Materials:
Our tent is made from five 6 inch cake layers. We used three for the bottom tier (approx 5 inches high total), and two 6″ cake layers to carve our “cone” shaped tier which is the top of the tent. We formed a point at the very top with one (22g) rice cereal treat. We used our white almond sour cream cake recipe, which is a doctored mix. Any fairly dense cake will do (since there is a bit of carving involved, I wouldn’t go with a very soft cake.)
White Chocolate Ganache: (I’m estimating using The Ganacherator ganache calculator) – 1298 g white chocolate + 15 oz cream for a total of 1731 g white chocolate ganache.
Fondant (we used Liz Marek’s recipe) -Approx. 3 lbs (1400g.) for covering the tent, trim, etc.
Fondant for stripes (we used pre-colored red fondant)
Waxed Paper (for transferring stripes–optional)
Shortening for light coating of waxed paper
Cake Base: We used three 16 inch cardboard cake circles, glued together and covered with a red plastic tablecloth which was then wrapped around the edge with ribbon.
Additional Colors used: Americolor Lemon Yellow, Americolor Royal Blue for flag, Americolor electric green
Nail: We used a nail to hammer holes into our cake base, which we then placed toothpick anchors into. Did this for the poodle, clown, and balloons.
Rice Cereal Treat (22g) to shape into point for the top top- Optional
Letter Molds for birthday message- Ours was a Martha Stewart Alphabet Mold
Piping Gel or Tylose Glue
Toothpicks (or preferred anchoring method)
FMM Fondant Ribbon Cutter–(spaced to 1 inch) for our stripes. This could also be done by hand.
Scalloped Frill Cutter (optional) for trim.
Bubble Tea straws or your supports of choice
Cardboard cake circles for each tier to rest on
Floral wire for balloons (stiff gauge– 20 gauge or 18)
Turntable is helpful
Here are links to the Circus clown & animal tutorials featured on our cake!
How to Make a Clown
How to make Elephants & Seals
Love this tent and the animals. When you made the Liz Marek fondant did you make it with the new Wilton fondant? How did it do?
Absolutely ADORABLE!!!
This is just beautiful – I’m thinking of making a circus cake for my granddaughter’s 1st birthday – this would be perfect – Thank you!!!
How many would this serve?
I love this entire series of video’s and the final result couldn’t be better.
It looks awesome all together, Love it, Love it !!
I think I will make this for my great nephews 3rd birthday in March. Hopefully he doesn’t have a different idea.
Thanks for doing this circus themed cake, I’m a sucker for a circus cake!! Great work as always.
Can’t wait to try
Thank you for your comments!!
@MsGF & Dolores- Glad to hear that you’ll be making this! ;0) So much fun.
@Melissa Poua~ I would say approx 15-20 servings if you figure around 12 (max) for the 6″ tier & then another partial 6″ tier for the top of the tent.
@Tammy- Yes, the Liz Marek fondant still works great with the new Wilton fondant!
Melissa Poua – If the 15-20 servings isn’t enough you can place the Circus Tent on a larger cake, say a 9×13 or a 10″ round.
Loved it! So cute and adorable! love the clown and the animals.
Melissa…. Could you (please) put up a template for the triangles on the tops of the cake? I would definitely appreciate and I would imagine several other people would appreciate it. Thanks.
Hi Marlene, thanks for letting me know that there is no template. I know that it’s nice to have one, although luckily in this case the process is very simple~
As I mentioned in the video, the template for the red triangles was made from an oversized index card that we had on hand.
I just folded the index card in half (longways) and made a slightly curved cut diagonally from the bottom outer corner to the top inner corner…and opened the card back up again.
(if your cake is larger or smaller than mine, just use a piece of paper that makes sense for the height of your cake)
Hi Melissa. I will be making two separate circus tent cakes for a client who is having a double birthday party for her two daughters this coming Saturday. I was just wondering if I made 4 (6 inch round) layers and 1/2 of a wilton sports ball pan (which I have and is 6 inches around) for the final layer on top of tent part and just carved that part a bit to make more pointy, if you think that would work just as well as your method of carving 2 (6 inch round) tiers for the top of the tent? I know I will still have to either use rice crispy treat to make the very point top of tent, or I could also make cake spackling (like cake pops) out of scraps and frosting to mold a point for the top. Just wanted to ask you input before I begin my baking in the next day or so. I have made gumpaste lion, poodle on ball, seal with ball on nose, elephant with rings on trunk, zebra with a quirky smile and a giraffe for these two cakes. :) Customer requested NO CLOWNS because her girls are afraid of clowns… lol. Anyway, I plan on frosting the cakes in buttercream and only using colored fondant for the door opening and stripes on top and bottom on tents. One with red stripes and other with blue stripes. I hope to hear back from you soon. Thank you again for all your help.
Hi Denise- Yes, I think that would be just fine to carve the 6″ half-ball pan into the top portion of the cake. I’m glad that you are making it, and it sounds like you are off to a great start –(too funny about the “no clowns” request!) – Can’t wait to hear how it goes, let us know if you have any more questions!