What a Workout

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 21^st 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...