I made this wine bottle and crate cake last summer. Everyone loved it, but I hated how my work turned out. It would have been a perfect cake if not for the weather. The temperature was so hot—I was melting!! My fondant panels became soft after all that hard work of placing them in the fridge so they would be perfect! The weather just kept them straight. Ah!! You know how heartbroken you can get when you work so hard to get things perfect, and then you have no control over things like the weather? I planned to make a tutorial for you because I was so confident about this cake. I took the video but, of course, later changed my mind about sharing the tutorial. It’s been a year now since I made the video, but I thought, well, the tutorial itself is not bad. Just the panels got soft because of the heat. I’m sure it’s still worth learning from. So, finally, I decided to combine the clips and share this Wine Bottle and Crate Cake Tutorial.
Cake and frosting
Cakes – I baked two sheet cakes (11 x 15 cm) Simple Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe.However, I highly recommend you use my Chocolate Cake perfect for carving instead, because my simple moist cake can be a bit difficult to hand for carving. You will need two of these cakes. One sheet cake makes the wine bottle, and the second makes the crate. The recipe I used was soft, so I had to use sufficient frosting to make a proper box shape. For the frosting, I used my recipe for cake decorators chocolate ganache. With the weather this hot, I prefer to use mostly ganache. However, I did fill the box with my Velvet American Buttercream.You will need two batches of ganache and almost one batch of buttercream frosting – or if you prefer, you can use all ganache (4 batches of ganache) Sugar Paste/ Fondant – I used both my Marshmallow Fondant recipes for this cake. The box is made with my Best Homemade Marshmallow Fondant Recipe, you can see it was still quite sticky when I added the ivory color to half. I keep it soft so it won’t dry out too fast in this hot weather.For the bottle, I used my Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant but dyed it black.You will need one batch each of marshmallow fondant and chocolate fondant – add black food gel color when preparing the chocolate marshmallow fondant
Step-by-step instructions
The bottle
I used a cookie cutter about 3 inches in diameter, the same size as a real wine bottle, for most of the bottle. I’d prefer to use Rice Krispy treats for the next, but the lady who ordered the cake preferred only cake, so all I did was use cake and a bit of modeling chocolate below the next as support.
The crate
For the side panel texture, I used a wood grain texture mat. I colored half my fondant in ivory before I marbled it. I cut the panels out and placed them in the fridge so they would be cold when I added them to the cake. Chilling fondant makes it firm and easier to handle. I attached my fondant panels with more ganache (water works, too)
The cake board
I think you going to love how the cake board turned out. I showed you how to create this wood effect from start to finish. Try not to think so much when working on the board. It’s not about trying to be perfect but rather about adding in some imperfections that make the realism complete
Make wine bottle fondant shiny
I then painted the panels with ivory and vodka – wiping off any excess moisture.
Make the fondant grapes and vine leaves
As you can see in the video – the grapes, leaves, and wines are pretty simple and easy. The final dusting gives a great impact and adds to the full effect.
Edible image for wine bottle label
The wine bottle label is an edible image. First I went on google and typed wine bottle label templates. I picked one that was not copyrighted so I wouldn’t violate any rules. Then I saved and edited that on PowerPoint. You can use a word document too. Just fill in the name and details. I kept the actual wine bottle size for the label so it would be the right size. So whatever you do make sure the guys who print it do not change the size. Unless of course, you making a larger or smaller bottle.
Timeline for decorating this cake
Now, I have discussed this topic in detail in my post – timeline for decorating a cake. Everyone works at their own pace, skills and time management. Ideally, no matter how you divide your time. It depends on the cake and frosting you are using. A cake baked from scratch with ganache will give you a bit more time as compared to box cakes (I think) or perishable filling/frostings. For this cake, I took about three days.
Day one – baked the cake (before bed) – wrapped and chilled it overnight. (3 hours) On day two – I carved, filled, and frosted the cake at intervals – leaving enough time to chill the cake in-between steps. (3 hours) – this can be split into two days if you baked the cake from scratch. Day three – covered the cake in fondant and decorated as shown in the video. (4 hours) (this can be split in two days in you bake the cake from scratch)
Frequently asked questions
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