Icing Recipe for a Foam Cake

Alexander HAlexander H ✭✭✭
in Props
I'm currently working on a foam cake for an upcoming stageshow, and we all know cake is unedible without some icing. The cake is made from upholstery foam, so it can be compressed and hidden in a table until it needs to be brought out (and as a bonus, the porus texture looks like spongecake). 

I'm hoping to make the icing have a satin finish, but I can't think of what sort of "coating" would allow for that, as well as be flexible enough to be squished flat and not break/lose its shape when compressed in the table. It's a small theatre production so the budget is pretty limited.

What ideas do you guys have on how to coat upholstery foam to make it look like satin-finished icing?

Comments

  • Chris EllerbyChris Ellerby Admin
    My first thought would be to frost it using thickened silicone, which would work almost exactly like regular icing.  The challenge would be getting the exact surface finish you want.  That could be achieved by using different additives like cabosil, formica powder, etc.  You could start with some small test batches to see how the surface finish changes with different combinations and amounts of additives. 

    /Chris
  • Alexander HAlexander H ✭✭✭
    Chris Ellerby said:
    My first thought would be to frost it using thickened silicone, which would work almost exactly like regular icing.  The challenge would be getting the exact surface finish you want.  That could be achieved by using different additives like cabosil, formica powder, etc.  You could start with some small test batches to see how the surface finish changes with different combinations and amounts of additives. 

    /Chris
    Thanks for your suggestion Chris! I reckon a silicone could've worked, though from what I've seen in the past they're a bit of a pain to paint.

    I ended up "sealing" the iced areas with contact cement, and then using E6000 to cover it. Still not exactly cheap (since the retailer kinda rips you off), and booooooy did my place smell real bad for a while - but, it's extremely flexible with no apparent creasing or cracking, and simple acrylic paints can be painted on and remain flexible. Alas, I didn't take any pictures before dropping it off to the theatre.
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