Off to Winnipeg we go!

A great friend and colleague is leaving for Winnipeg to continue his post-secondary studies. I was asked to make a cake for him for his going away party. I thought of all the Winnipeg stereotypes (mainly weather-related) in order to find a theme for this cake. Making a snowy/winter cake would've been too depressing for him, especially since winter doesn't start for another few months and he definitely wasn't a fan of cold weather!

I have wanted to try doing a suitcase cake for some time now but the chance never really came up. I started off by making a butter cake..a recipe passed around the family. I didn't want to cover the cake completely in fondant since a lot of people dont like the taste. Instead, I tinted the buttercream icing with a bit of Wilton brown gel coloring and spread it evently. After a few minutes in the fridge to harden, I took a Bounty paper towel (the kind with the quilted pockets) and laid it on top of the cake. Then I took an angled spatula and gently pressed the towel onto the icing, allowing the pattern to form on top of the icing. If you look closely in the pictures below, you can see the quilted pattern. I repeated this throughout the cake, including the sides.

I cut out white fondant letters to spell out our best wishes, rolled out and cut strips of black fondant to create the luggage straps, and molded a handle. I also cut out black fondant to create the sides and edges of the luggage and used silver luster dust to create the "screws" of the luggage.