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My niece, nephew, and I waited a long time to see The BoxTrolls. We scoured search engines for snippets, previews, articles, anything really so that we could admire and continue to amp up our excitement to see the movie. We loved every inch of it so much! I think it was the first time I ever heard my niece and nephew chat so much collectively about something they both truly enjoyed! Of course me I saw CAKE, CAKE , and CAKE!

Each year I create the kids bday cakes and now that they’re growing up a bit (8 & soon to be 13) they challenge me LOL My nephew completely floored me when he said he wanted a BoxTroll cake. He said, …“the eyes have to glow and it has to be taller than my knee. And have strawberries in it.” I said ok kiddd, but you’re helping me this year!

I don’t often have an opp to create structured cakes, so this was a little out of my comfort zone. but I was up for the challenge. With help from (affiliate link): Mike McCarey’s Advanced Cake Sculpting= class on Craftsy I was able to get a better grip on the exact hardware I was going to need.
I had 4 goals on the deck:

• have the cake appear to defy gravity by balancing on one leg
• light up the eyes
• make the wire spark
• put strawberries inside

My nephew was a great help, not only did he help create a sketch, but he helped measure a mock up, went with me to supply shop at the hardware store, helped paint the internal structure with white chocolate tinted orange (his fave color), created the script for the BoxTroll’s label, and made the teeth.

I’ll admit, my time-management was off for this project. Some of the elements I planned didn’t make it onto the cake. I learned a few things:

• build the structure a day in advance of stacking the cake
• buy the contractor pack of nuts, you’re gonna lose a few LOL
• stock up on armature wire
• according to our state law – anything that emits showers of sparks is not available for purchase until a week before or after 4th of July. stock up!

Overall, I am super pleased, the entire thing was cake except for the legs, ears, & arms (modelling chocolate). My nephew ADORED IT! Did NOT want to cut it. And there were fresh strawberries inside :)

Thank you so much for looking <3

P.S. The lenses for the goggles are made of DECOgel by www.icingimages.com this stuff is incredible! I also used their Premium Wafer Paper to create the label on the cake, it’s really yummy.