We tend to focus primarily on the dessert at Cameron's Birthday parties.  This year, Cameron decided on a Spongebob-themed party.

  I wanted to try my hand at a custom-cake.  We've spent upwards of $50.00 on birthday desserts in the past, so I had a budget-target.  There would be approximately fifteen guests plus parents and relatives in attendance.

Parts list:

Spongebob picture

9 x 13 cakes:  Quantity 2 *

Rolled fondant:  Quantity 2 batches

Food coloring, canned white frosting, frosting tips and bags

Utility Knife

Fed-Ex boxes

Corrugated cardboard

Duct tape (required for any worthwhile project)

* - cakes actually shrink after baking, so factor this in when making images and templates.  Instead of a 13 x 18 cake, I ended up with 11 x 16.

1.  Find an image of Spongebob Squarepants that Cameron and I agree on.  The image could have been ripped from any number of Spongebob Squarepants DVDs or books in his vast media collection.  Fortunately, I found a large image free-of-charge at allposters.com.  (yes, it has a watermark, but that's a non-issue)

The image should be cake-able.  Overall rectangular or round images are best.  I tried to stay away from images that would involve a lot of cutting and trimming of cake.  Also, large curves are more difficult (but not impossible) to ice than straight lines.

Use an image editing program to resize and print the image to the actual size required.  My personal choice was Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Print it out (my image spanned 4 sheets of paper), tape it together and use it as a pattern for perforating.

Once the image is printed and taped-together, lay it out on the Fed-Ex cardboard and start perforating the outlines to make the templates.

Heavier knives and sharp blades will take less toll on your hands.

I have seen specialty perforating tools, but the utility knife was readily available and free-of-charge.

Once the templates are made, make a base by cutting out a sheet of heavy corrugated cardboard.  Use spray adhesive and duct-tape to fasten some decorative paper to the front.  Use mutilple layers of cardboard for strength.  You'll want to use spray adhesive because when you're actually cutting the cake, you don't want shards of paper on the slices.

I had considered using blue foil for a shimmering water-effect, but I thought the foil might have been too fragile.  Also, the dark navy paper was readily available and free-of-charge.

Bake and cool the cakes, position them on the cardboard base, and prepare the fondant.

Fondant is really sticky and dense.  It almost killed my hand-mixer, so once it gets to a doughy stage, you can complete the rest of the mixing by hand.  Those with stand-mixers, consider yourselves fortunate.

1.  Roll out the fondant to 1/4" and color with food coloring.  At first, I tried using confectoner's sugar for dusting, but it soon turned coarse and sticky - using corn starch is definitely the better option.

2.  Use the templates and  a sharp, dry paring knife to cut out the shapes.  You'll want to have the fondant dusted so that the cardboard template does not stick to the fondant.

3.  I was able to make most of the pastel colors, but brown and black were the most difficult.  For the brown, Cameron and I decided to incorporate Hershey's cocoa powder into the fondant.  For black, we purchased black frosting.

4.  I learned that the widest sheet of fondant you can make is determined by the fondant thickness, the conditions of the kitchen, and the width of your rolling-pin.  Because of that, there were visible seams in the cake.  You can use thinner fondant to blend these in, or just cover them up with other elements and frosting.  Those with large kitchens, consider yourselves fortunate.

Upon completion of the perforating, you should be able to punch-out the templates from the Fed-Ex cardboard.

Fed-Ex cardboard was chosen because of it's medium weight, it was readily available, and free-of-charge.

Going the extra mile:

Pipe icing around the edge of the cake to hide the lower-edge imperfections.

Make a "Happy 6th Birthday" sign using background Spongebob art and the free font named Tartarsauce.

Because the birthday boy helped, he got to cut the first slice.

Like a flock of bloodthirsty cockatiels, they went for the eyes...