An Amputated Foot

By August of 2009, word had gotten out to my co-workers that I make cakes. It was requested by my boss that I make a cake for the August birthdays, which happened to be two male physical therapists. What better than to make a part of the body essential for walking! I wanted to make it gross though...blood, guts, tissue. So, I made an amputated foot cake.

I chose a spice cake since it is a light fleshy color and baked it in my favorite 13x9 pan. I cut the cake into thirds, trimmed a little off the length of the second layer, and cut the third layer in half to stack it into four layers high. I filled, stacked, and started carving. This was the fun and difficult part for me. I used my own foot as a reference (no, my feet are not as ugly as the cake was!). I carved the big toe, heel, arches, ankle.

Next, I mixed up a homemade recipe of fondant--used shortening, karo syrup, powder sugar, and salt. It actually worked well and didn't taste too bad. However, my poor mixer was not built for mixing fondant and started smoking a little...I should have bought the commercial grade mixer! I colored some red, green, and blue fondant for veins, arteries, and tendons. Now, I have never studied the anatomy of feet, so I just looked at my own foot and guessed at where things should be. Then, I colored fondant for the flesh, rolled it out and covered the foot. I took a knife and made indents on the toes for cracked skin. I put black pieces of fondant for bruised toenails. I made little worm-like threads of red and blue fondant for blood vessels and had them hanging out of the top of the foot. Finally, I mixed up a very thin icing in red, poured it on the top of the foot, and let it drip around the foot like a pool of blood. ICK!!!

This was one of the most fun cakes that I have ever made. It would make a great Halloween cake. The two physical therapists loved the cake and even got into a discussion about what kind of toe amputation they should do while serving the cake!