We have had
some rather unusual requests in the past, but this recent one for a “mini gym”
definitely takes the cake (excuse the horrible pun). Well actually they didn’t
want the cake, they just wanted us to make some edible gym equipment that would
be used as cake toppers for a 21st cake.
When the
request first came in I thought it was odd, but like I said we’ve had many
unusual requests so apart from the initial eyebrow raise I didn’t think much of
it. Little did I know how much my patience would be exercised by this task, for
who could have predicted that the heat week from hell was about to hit Cape
Town? Well maybe the weatherman, but that’s entirely beside the point.
For those of you who have some knowledge of
fondant, you may know that it is a temperamental substance that if not treated
exactly right, loves to cause you problems. Weather is a big contributing
factor to your fondant’s behaviour. The fondant hardens with exposure to the
air, but if the weather is hot and humid, there is a lot of moisture in the
air. This means instead of hardening the fondant remains somewhat soft,
problematic when you are trying to mould it into shapes. And even more
problematic when those shapes have to make a mini treadmill and gym bicycle.
If you think
about it making gym equipment from a malleable substance like fondant is
already a difficult feat. Not having the luxury of bolts and metal these top
heavy devices are a cake designers engineering nightmare. Now add to that the
fact that the fondant is remaining soft and my terrible maths skills and you
are starting to get the picture of the hill climb battle I was having trying to
make these items. Unfortunately for me there was no ‘emergency stop’ button I
could hit that could save me from my predicament.
Every time I
thought I’d created a strong enough support structure, with the addition of the
other parts of the machine my whole device would come crashing down and it was
back to the beginning of the circuit. This was a rather frustrating task only
made worse by the baking hot weather.
After many
failed attempts I finally managed to get both my treadmill and bicycle to stand
using countless pieces of spaghetti and copious amounts of food glue. But this
was not the end of my workout. Bits of the machines kept dropping off, mostly
the handles and I was constantly playing touch up. The handle of the bicycle
didn’t want to dry so I couldn’t add enough support and it ended up cracking in
the middle and falling off the bike, smaller handles were the solution. It’s
the small adjustments that make the big difference.
At the end of
the day I managed to make the mini gym. It put me through my paces and I feel I
had a harder workout than what a normal sized gym could provide. So that's it for me, I've torn up my gym card, it's mini gyms for me from now on...
