Nikon D90 Camera Cake (White chocolate cream filled red velvet cake)

I made this cake for my friend's 30th birthday. I was really nervous as this is my first novelty cake and we had to transfer the cake to Belgium where we celebrated this occasion. Sadly I haven't made any pictures during the  process, but I do my best to explain how I achieved this look.

Nikon D90 Camera Cake

I made the sponge from red velvet cake as I have a day job and I couldn't afford to have a day off just to create this, but I know that my version of red velvet cake just gets better 2 days after baking. So the plan was to bake it on Monday evening, shape it and cover it with cream on Tuesday evening and put on the royal icing on Wednesday(as we set off 3am on Thursday). 

For the sponge
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 vanilla
165g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
8g baking powder
red food colouring * more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 
1 cake board

For the buttercream
80g butter softened
200g icing sugar
20g cream cheese

For the filling
150g soft cheese
100g white chocolate
150g double cream
1 dream topping
50g dessicated coconut

To cover:
A photograph on edible rice paper-optional
500g black Regal Ice(black sugar paste)-I used an already coloured one, as I read in other blogs that if you try to add food colouring to the white icing you should work on it for quite a while to achieve a nice even black colour.....and I didn't had the time for that
250g red Regal Ice (red sugar paste)
White edible paint
Edible glue
Ruler

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter and the sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs,vanilla, salt and half of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and give it a final mix.

Add the food colouring and mix well. 

Put the mixture in a 20X25cm prepared tin and bake it for 1hr and 15minutes, but check the sponge after an hour. If the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean then it is ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes than put it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

My aim was to achieve a real 1to 1 live size model and it is quite handy if you have the real stuff in front of you. I had my husband's D80 as a model which is quite similar to the D90. Actually the cake came out just the right height (approx 8.5cm). I measured the camera then draw the shape on a piece of paper.

I used a food ring for the lens ( my husband sometimes use this to shape rice or veggies like people in the "Master Chef"). The second sponge you need is almost rectangle except on one hand where you need to create a "handle". To visualize this I created a draft below.It may seem that the cake is small, but i wanted a real camera on the plate. The finished cake was anyway bigger as i haven't calculated with the cream and icing layers on the surface.

So my cake only consisted of two main parts limiting the damage during the journey.

I cut the body and the lens sponge to three parts horizontally and filled with the white chocolate cream. I also cut a small additional piece of sponge on top of the body for the flash holder. I mounded with some cream onto the center. 

For the cream

Whip the double cream to stiff peaks, then add the cream cheese, melted white chocolate dessicated coconut and the dream topping and mix again. 

Sandwich together the layers with the cream and put the cake into the fridge for at least 2 hours for the filling to be harden so you can apply the buttercream more easily.

For the buttercream

Cream together the softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and mix again.

Spread the buttercream thinly on the surface of the sponges,try to smooth the cream with an offset spatula knife for a nice finish. 

Refrigerate until  set to the touch and then spread the remaining buttercream over the cakes to give a perfect finish.

To cover

Be careful with the sugar paste as it drys out quickly so if you don't use it wrap it in cling film.Make sure your work surface is clean and dry before you kneed the black sugar paste until warm and pliable. Use some icing sugar to dust your work surface and roll out approx. 250g black icing to 3-4mm thickness to cover the camera body. Carefully lift over the centre of the cake and lay onto the butter cream layer. Dust your icing smoother with some icing sugar and rub the icing gently over the cake using your fingers if needed and an icing smoother.Use a sharp knife to trim the edges, cutting always downwards. Save the trimming for other decorations. 

Do the same for the lens with appr 150g black icing.

As we only need a tiny amount of red sugarpaste you can cover the cake board with it and then place the cake body and the lens(laid on its side) on it.

Now.......... you can breathe:) Most of the hard work is done...

Using the rest of your sugarpaste only few buttons and some detailing is left. For the lens roll out some black sugarpaste and cut it to appr.1.5cmX12-15cm(depending on the diameter of your lens). Put the ruler next to it and every half cm press the back of your knife on it, carefully not to cut it through. When you finish place the ruler lengthwise and make 2 "dent" on the sugarpaste...creating the "lens effect". Cut it to the right length and fix it onto the lens with some edible glue. Repeat the process with a slightly smaller sugarpaste piece 1cmX12-15cm, and this time only make one lengthwise "dent".

The rest is down to you. To make my job easier I printed one of your photograph on edible paper and secured it with some edible glue on the camera screen on the back. 

Don't forget the red detail on the front and the Nikon and the D90 mark on the front with the white paint. I made a small rectangle sugarpaste piece and painted on that....so I can practice without ruining the cake. Fix all the buttons with the edible glue on it(just to be on the safe side).

It is really important that once you have finished with the cake, leave it out for at least an hour so the icing can harden properly.

Keep it in the fridge as it contains cream cheese. Lay back and enjoy the view...and the taste later on.