Cake - Foam Part 3

Something frivolous now for project #3.

We start with this

cover it with felt

add ribbon

cover with more felt

sew on some velcro circles

stack

and start decorating -

layer

by layer;

or throw on some candles

and go the whole hog

then change the theme

and celebrate love,

spring

and the pursuit of happiness.

And when we've had our cake, we eat it too -

What fun I had with this project!

I first became obsessed with it when I saw this (and fell in 

love with the entire shop, really), but I've been a mom of little 

kids just long enough to know they want to serve cake to 

every guest at their tea parties, and blow out the candles, too.

So they got a three-dimensional felt board-cum-hospitality prop.

I am relieved to say I did use the good wool blend 

stuff this time for the main cake, although some of the 

colored fondant is acrylic.

Not hard to make at all, although it does take time. Here's 

the pattern for the big (10" diameter) and medium (8") cake 

slices. The top layer (6")is a solid disc so that the candles 

have a nice stable platform.The foam is 3" thick and in 

addition to the pieces in the pattern, you will need 

(quarter-inch seam allowance included)

For each large cake slice:

1 piece felt 10.5" x 3.5"

1 piece felt 4.5" x 3.5"

11" of 1/2" ribbon

For each medium cake slice:
1 piece felt 8.5" x 3.5"
1 piece felt 4.75" x 3.5"
9" of 1/2" ribbon

to make the walls of the slice.

Top-stitch the ribbon lengthwise along 

the longer felt rectangle.

Some notes and tips:

• An electric knife is really nice for cutting foam, provided you don't also use the same knife to carve the Thanksgiving turkey.
  
• If you don't have an electric knife, a box cutter/X-acto knife works well if you position the blade vertically, not slanted, and saw up and down.
  
• It doesn't matter if the edges of the foam are slightly uneven or bumpy because the felt case smooths these out.
  
• I used a little over a yard of the white wool-blend felt for the entire project.
• Resist the temptation to make the felt case either too snug (the final product will be bulgy) or give too much allowance to make it roomy. The cake slices will fit together best if the felt cases fit the foam inserts just so.
  
• I did not consider stuffing the felt cases with polyfill rather than a foam insert because I wanted the flat sides to facilitate smooth and tight packing and stacking.
  
• When making the circular cover for the whole cake (see 4th picture), I found it helpful to complete all the slices, then pack them together and measure the final diameter of the circle they made. Mine measured 10.5" and 8.5" in the end.
  
• The small cake with the velcro was made simply with two 6.5" circles and a rectangular piece 3.5" x 19.5" (quarter inch seam allowance included in all dimensions).
  
• The felt strawberries and the felt peg doll actually belong to another incomplete project, so you'll see them again in a later post. The felt daisy and tulip cake toppers were unicorn food from this post.

Now for the candles:

Here are patterns and instructions:

I don't think I've done a blanket stitch since I was about 10!

If you don't feel like sewing, scroll down to 

the next post for the cardboard version!

Edited to add: One commentor told me that PBK 

has a felt cake too! I went online to look and oh, 

it is gorgeous. Go here to see.

Another commentor left this wonderful link where 

you can buy 8" foam rounds as well as precut foam 

wedges. I cannot vouch for this being high-density 

foam but it is very, very helpful if you don't 

want to splurge on the other kind!