The Cake Decorating Process: A Mother's Struggle with Math and Lego Bricks

As I sat at my kitchen table, surrounded by fondant, icing, and cake pans, I couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration wash over me. I was trying to make a cake for my son's fifth birthday, but everything seemed to be going wrong. First, I had realized that I still had extra fondant rolled out from my last project, which was a good thing because I needed it to make the round pegs that are on the top of Lego bricks. These pegs were what made Lego sticks together, and I knew I needed to roll out the fondant again to get the right consistency.

I took a deep breath and began to re-roll out the fondant, rolling it out quite thin so that I could use it to create the small pegs that would hold the cake together. As I worked, I couldn't help but think about how much math was involved in this process. I had to measure out the perfect amount of icing to spread between each brick, and make sure that they were evenly spaced from one another. It was a delicate balancing act, and I knew that if I made a mistake, the whole cake could come crashing down.

As I worked on the cake, I couldn't help but think about how much my son loved Lego. He had been obsessed with the little plastic bricks for as long as I could remember, and he spent hours building elaborate creations with them. I had decided to make him a cake in the shape of Lego bricks, complete with fondant pegs that would hold everything together. But as I worked on the cake, I began to realize just how challenging it was going to be.

I had to carefully cut out four circular pegs in each color for the configuration that I was thinking of putting together again later. I had to make sure that they were perfectly symmetrical and evenly spaced from one another, or the whole thing would look lopsided. It was a difficult task, but I was determined to get it right.

After what felt like hours of work, I finally finished the pegs and added them to the cake. But as I looked at the finished product, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. The configuration didn't work out exactly as I had planned, and I knew that the cake was going to be a bit of a mess.

To solve this problem, I decided to lay the pegs on a board in the fridge until it was time to assemble the cake. This way, they would be cold and stable when I needed them, and I wouldn't have to worry about them shifting or falling apart. As I waited for the pegs to chill, I began to stack my Lego brick cakes onto a large wooden cake board that I had cut and covered with green fondant.

I carefully placed each brick on top of the next, using royal icing to hold them in place. I made sure that they were evenly spaced from one another, and that the pegs were perfectly aligned with the bricks below them. It was a delicate process, but I was determined to get it right.

As I worked on the cake, I couldn't help but think about how much my son was going to love it. He had been begging me for weeks to make him a Lego-themed cake, and I knew that this would be the perfect solution. But as I placed the final brick on top of the cake, I felt a pang of anxiety. What if it didn't turn out right? What if my son was disappointed?

I took a deep breath and tried to push the thoughts aside. I had done everything I could to make sure the cake turned out perfectly, and now all I could do was wait and see. As I looked at the finished product, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. It may not have been perfect, but it was definitely unique, and my son was going to love it.

The cake was finally ready, and it was time to add the finishing touches. I used clear piping gel to glue the pegs onto the surface of the cake, making sure that they were securely attached. I also added some extra decorations, including a small fondant Lego brick with the number five on it. It was a special touch that would make the cake even more unique.

As I placed the final decoration on top of the cake, my son walked into the room and saw what I had created. His eyes widened in excitement as he took in the sight of the Lego brick cake, complete with fondant pegs and royal icing bricks. "Wow, mom," he exclaimed. "This is amazing!"

I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and satisfaction as my son hugged me tightly. It had been a long and difficult process, but it was all worth it to see the look on his face. The cake may not have been perfect, but it was definitely special, and I knew that my son would never forget it.

In the end, it didn't matter whether the cake turned out perfectly or not. What mattered was that it came from the heart, and that my son loved every minute of it. As we sat down to eat the cake together, I couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to share this special moment with my child. It was a memory that I would treasure forever, and one that would stay with me for years to come.

The Lego Brick Cake: A Family Tradition?

As the days went by, I began to realize just how much my son had loved the cake. He had eaten it all in one sitting, and then asked if he could have a slice of cake every day for the rest of the week. It was clear that the cake had become a family tradition, with each member of the family clamoring for their turn at eating it.

I couldn't help but laugh as I watched my son ask for another slice of cake, his eyes shining with excitement. "Mom, can I have some more?" he asked, his voice full of hope. "Please?"

I smiled and handed him a small piece of cake, feeling happy to see my child so happy. As we sat down to eat our snack together, I couldn't help but think about how much the Lego brick cake had become a part of our family's tradition.

From that day on, cakes became a regular occurrence in our household. Each month, we would have a new theme and design, with my son getting to choose the design and decorations. It was a fun way for us to spend time together, and I loved seeing the look of excitement on my child's face as he waited for his next cake.

The Lego brick cake had been just the beginning, and now we were on to our next creation. And as I looked around at my family, I knew that this was what it meant to be a family - sharing laughter, love, and delicious cakes together.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back to how to cake it i'm yolanda and can you guess what i'm caking this week is this something that you step on and then turns away it's lego i'm caking giant lego bricks for my son's fifth birthday to make this cake i baked 13 pounds of my ultimate chocolate batter in one rectangular and one square pan i leveled my cakes once they were completely cooled and chilled i'm going to layer both of them into two layers now that my cakes are layered i'm going to cut each cake into individual or what will become individual lego bricks after doing this i realized i wish i had cut the sizes first and then layered the cakes but everything's okay one of my pens was 11 by 15 inches and from this pen i'm going to get three lego bricks one brick will be 15 by five one brick will be ten by five and one brick will be five by five does that make sense for my square cake that is ten by ten inches i will cut one brick that is ten by five and two bricks that are five by five there's gonna be a lot of numbers in this video now i have six cakes that will become six lego bricks five for my son because he's turning five and one that i can cut and share with you guys well not actually i'll just eat it in front of you the next thing i need to do is place each one of these cakes onto a cake board that is cut to the exact size and then i need to simple syrup all my layers i told sir squeezy better simple syrup accurately because this is for my son while the simple syrup soaks in i am going to mix together a special filling for this cake i'm mixing score toffee bits into my chocolate swiss meringue buttercream whoa it's like a chocolate bar you should smell it really coffee bits toffee bits my son doesn't need coffee trust me no coffee needed it's time to fill my lego brick cakes so there's a chocolate layer on the bottom then i spread some italian meringue buttercream evenly we gotta keep these looking like bricks then i lay on kit kats i chose kit kats because they're the straightest most level chocolate bar you know what i'm saying they're not bumpy on the top they're flat and if i need to cut them to fit they're easy to cut so i lay a layer of kitkats on the cake then i spread a layer of my toffee chocolate buttercream i had to close my eyes when i said that because i can smell it when i talk about it and then i add the top cake layer coffee chocolate really good oh it would just not for a five-year-old i actually love coffee and toffee there's a ben and jerry's ice cream that is coffee toffee crunch it's coffee ice cream i realized you know what i realized i talked to you a lot like i'll see in the video that i'm like so aura never mind them you know what i love orahan my favorite time of the year is here now camp cake is back well it's almost back mark your calendars because this live stream baking event is happening december 15th from now until november 12th at midnight est you can enter to win my mega prize pack this prize has a retail value of over 500 and it includes a signed copy of my cake book some of my most popular caking bundles cakeware and of course camp cake just click the link below for your chance to win we'll be picking the winners live on instagram plus i'll be doing additional giveaways during that live stream but you have to be there to win the next thing i want to do is chill these cakes because i need to make sure that they're level after i've filled them before i start crumb coating i'm going to use a ruler and i'm going to level them all to three inches tall wow that rhymed if i said this you would say that that all and tall rhyme just because they're the same no but that's what oh cody we're having the rhyming conversation again oh my goodness he now he needs me to prove to him why all and tall rhyme yours was vote and vote both almost as much no i'm not even joking i think they're right i'm not sure how to progress this conversation me neither i i give up i honestly i need a white flag because you guys have been complaining every single week about my beautiful pink crumb coat and chill megaphone jocelyn actually removed it from this but when i was at her house i'm like double or seven the only way i'd be willing to part with this megaphone is if i can auto tune the crumb coat and shell i want to like tea paint crumble now that my crown coat is chilled i'm going to ice my cakes again oh so what i'm going to do is well i'm just going to attempt to ice these cakes i use a spatula i also use a bench scraper to help me keep my edges nice and square but as i always recommend with square cakes i'll probably ice this one more time actually i will ice this one i've iced all six cakes and chilled them but now i'm going to go back and perfect that icing even more so what i did is i measured the cakes and i cut more cake boards to the exact size now what i'm going to do is place that cake board on top of the cake and then use a spatula and my bench scraper to just ice the sides this way i know it's really straight because i'm like there's two boards and i'm lining my spatula up with them if you know a mom who works tirelessly in her kitchen making a cake for her child only to have her child say i didn't want that share this video he was happy this year yep so i didn't ask for void nope but i will tell you what he did at the end it's time to roll out a whole lot of fun i roll the fondant nice and thin to about an eighth of an inch and i need to make sure to roll enough of each color to cover all four sides and the top of one brick six bricks six different colors so keep in mind your measurements when you're rolling the colors and know which brick you want to cover in each color i love how i tell you guys this as if there's someone out there who's like you know what i'm gonna do this weekend make six lego bricks that's what i'm gonna do like just just make one you know what i mean make one make it bigger it'll be great to begin covering these cakes the first thing i do is measure the height of the cakes we're gonna get into a lot of measuring and then i cut strips of that color of fondant to that exact dimension so if it was three inches high i cut three inch strips of fondant now i apply two of those strips to either side of the cake and smooth them on with a fondant smoother i do this to all of my cakes each one being a different color the height is the most important and then make sure it's a bit longer than your kick or wider wider so confusing so now all six of my cakes have two sides covered chill the cakes before we trim then i hold up a ruler and carefully cut down i do this on all four sides on all six cakes now i can begin covering the back and front of the case this week on how to cake it step by step megan has made fall outfits out of sugar cookies also cassie is back with another fun cake for you guys it's an elephant taking a bubble bath wasn't cassie baked last week well apparently she wasn't and last week was jyoti's fancy cake slices you can see them all here jocelyn says sometimes you let me point in the wrong direction yeah you are pointing at the wrong direction well hello direct my direction here yeah no no no really what no now all four sides of all of our cakes are covered and we need to address the top of the cake so the reason i've cut all four panels on the side to the same height is because now if our cakes were crooked at all we can address it so if the cake dips down under and you have sort of a lip of fondant what we're gonna do is fill in the top of the cake with more buttercream if you measured each side and cut the panels if your cake was crooked you just end up with a crooked lego brick which i'd probably want well now you know so all of my cakes needed a bit of filling in except one it actually was a little too high at parts so i had to trim it now it's time to cut the fondant to place on top of each one of my cakes first i cut one side straight with a ruler and a knife then i line up my set square with the straight side that i cut and cut the perpendicular side straight as well now always make sure that your slab is still a bit larger than your cake because we want a bit of excess to trim and then carefully pick it up and line up those two straight edges with two perpendicular sides of your cake i really hope you're with me now what i need to do is trim the other two sides of fondant again with a sharp paring knife and a ruler to help and you just want to cut flush against the sides thank you so much it's like you designed it it is it's a lot like connie and i designed it isn't it the color it says how to cake it are we selling them no because there's only two right now and they're mine they're mine now what i need to do is create a fondant paste to patch any seams we won't be able to completely cover the seams but in my opinion i'd rather see straight sharp sides on a lego brick than have draped the fondant over and smoothed it because i don't have time for rounded sides on a lego brick they're extremely square i turn into the seam hider and i use my fondant paste to patch up any really visible seams i have to make a lot of fondant because i have to make six different colors of fondant you may have noticed that i still have extra fondant rolled out and that's a good thing because i need to make the round pegs that are on the top of lego bricks that's what makes lego stick together because i rolled my fondant out quite thin i need it to be a bit thicker to resemble the fondant pegs to glue it together i am brushing on a thin layer of water this just starts to dissolve the sugar and makes it sticky and it will glue fondant to fondant now i'm going to use a circle cutter to cut out my pegs i have to again i'm doing all this math in my head i know you can't see it but i'm super confused and i have to make sure to cut out enough pegs that will remain visible even after i stack the cakes does that make sense yeah okay i sustained uh an injury this episode while making this cake for my son it's a finger cot that's what's on my finger i need to try and cut out four circular pegs in each color for the configuration that i'm thinking of putting together again later did you plan the configuration in my head i thought about how i wanted the bricks to be configured spoiler alert it doesn't work out this is this isn't fun for you this is vital in cake decorating because it's it's not a solid object so no matter how much you measure and how much practice i have it rarely works out exactly the way you thought it was going to when it comes to things like this i've cut all of my circular pegs i'm just going to lay them on a board and put them in the fridge to chill because i don't want to add them to my cakes until it's been assembled i'm stacking my lego brick cakes onto a large wooden cake board that i had cut and i previously covered with green fondant now keep in mind that if i want this board to look like a pegboard i also have to cut a bunch of green pegs to add to this board later so i cut a whole bunch the first one i put down is the largest red brick i spread a little bit of royal icing and lay down that brick next week i'm making a cake for my american friends who are celebrating thanksgiving it's gonna be a slice see what i did there if you have a guess comment below and don't forget to subscribe to this channel and ring the notification bell so you know when that video is live now i place my blue brick perpendicular to the red one i place my yellow one on top um now before i stack the orange and purple together i do place the pegs on those cakes again use a ruler make sure they're evenly spaced from the sides and from each other and use a little bit of clear piping gel to glue them onto the surface of the cake for any cake that's going to have another cake on top of it i use dowels inserted inside to support it now it's very important that the yellow so the primary bricks the yellow blue and red i dowel them and stack them before adding the pegs because i want it to look like these legos were fit perfectly together with my orange and purple i add the pigs first then dowel because they're off to the side and they're not you know they're not stuck to each other could you not pick something that he likes that's easy he doesn't like anything easy he is obsessed with lego and ninjago i'm i'm gonna try and get him into like i don't know bouncy balls for next year look at this bouncy ball that's so bouncy and then next year i'll just make a round cake perfect i have to acknowledge that my son is turning five so i rolled out some white black and yellow fondant because i wanted to cut a five out and make it look like the lego logo so there's this youtube channel it's called ryan's toy review and ryan has these ginormous lego bricks in the background while he's playing with his mother and my son is obsessed first of all he always asks me why i don't introduce him to ryan because i don't know ryan and then he asked me where why don't i buy him those ginormous lego bricks so i caked him the ginormous lego bricks and before i served a tim i added a number five candle he loved it but then he proceeded to take the number five candle and repeatedly stab the lego bricks did you make this mom oh i love it i said i didn't it didn't take me days to make you that go ahead my brain doesn't hurt from all that math just go right ahead thanks for watching don't forget to check out megan's fall outfit cookies and cassie's elephant taking a bubble bath i'll see you next weekwelcome back to how to cake it i'm yolanda and can you guess what i'm caking this week is this something that you step on and then turns away it's lego i'm caking giant lego bricks for my son's fifth birthday to make this cake i baked 13 pounds of my ultimate chocolate batter in one rectangular and one square pan i leveled my cakes once they were completely cooled and chilled i'm going to layer both of them into two layers now that my cakes are layered i'm going to cut each cake into individual or what will become individual lego bricks after doing this i realized i wish i had cut the sizes first and then layered the cakes but everything's okay one of my pens was 11 by 15 inches and from this pen i'm going to get three lego bricks one brick will be 15 by five one brick will be ten by five and one brick will be five by five does that make sense for my square cake that is ten by ten inches i will cut one brick that is ten by five and two bricks that are five by five there's gonna be a lot of numbers in this video now i have six cakes that will become six lego bricks five for my son because he's turning five and one that i can cut and share with you guys well not actually i'll just eat it in front of you the next thing i need to do is place each one of these cakes onto a cake board that is cut to the exact size and then i need to simple syrup all my layers i told sir squeezy better simple syrup accurately because this is for my son while the simple syrup soaks in i am going to mix together a special filling for this cake i'm mixing score toffee bits into my chocolate swiss meringue buttercream whoa it's like a chocolate bar you should smell it really coffee bits toffee bits my son doesn't need coffee trust me no coffee needed it's time to fill my lego brick cakes so there's a chocolate layer on the bottom then i spread some italian meringue buttercream evenly we gotta keep these looking like bricks then i lay on kit kats i chose kit kats because they're the straightest most level chocolate bar you know what i'm saying they're not bumpy on the top they're flat and if i need to cut them to fit they're easy to cut so i lay a layer of kitkats on the cake then i spread a layer of my toffee chocolate buttercream i had to close my eyes when i said that because i can smell it when i talk about it and then i add the top cake layer coffee chocolate really good oh it would just not for a five-year-old i actually love coffee and toffee there's a ben and jerry's ice cream that is coffee toffee crunch it's coffee ice cream i realized you know what i realized i talked to you a lot like i'll see in the video that i'm like so aura never mind them you know what i love orahan my favorite time of the year is here now camp cake is back well it's almost back mark your calendars because this live stream baking event is happening december 15th from now until november 12th at midnight est you can enter to win my mega prize pack this prize has a retail value of over 500 and it includes a signed copy of my cake book some of my most popular caking bundles cakeware and of course camp cake just click the link below for your chance to win we'll be picking the winners live on instagram plus i'll be doing additional giveaways during that live stream but you have to be there to win the next thing i want to do is chill these cakes because i need to make sure that they're level after i've filled them before i start crumb coating i'm going to use a ruler and i'm going to level them all to three inches tall wow that rhymed if i said this you would say that that all and tall rhyme just because they're the same no but that's what oh cody we're having the rhyming conversation again oh my goodness he now he needs me to prove to him why all and tall rhyme yours was vote and vote both almost as much no i'm not even joking i think they're right i'm not sure how to progress this conversation me neither i i give up i honestly i need a white flag because you guys have been complaining every single week about my beautiful pink crumb coat and chill megaphone jocelyn actually removed it from this but when i was at her house i'm like double or seven the only way i'd be willing to part with this megaphone is if i can auto tune the crumb coat and shell i want to like tea paint crumble now that my crown coat is chilled i'm going to ice my cakes again oh so what i'm going to do is well i'm just going to attempt to ice these cakes i use a spatula i also use a bench scraper to help me keep my edges nice and square but as i always recommend with square cakes i'll probably ice this one more time actually i will ice this one i've iced all six cakes and chilled them but now i'm going to go back and perfect that icing even more so what i did is i measured the cakes and i cut more cake boards to the exact size now what i'm going to do is place that cake board on top of the cake and then use a spatula and my bench scraper to just ice the sides this way i know it's really straight because i'm like there's two boards and i'm lining my spatula up with them if you know a mom who works tirelessly in her kitchen making a cake for her child only to have her child say i didn't want that share this video he was happy this year yep so i didn't ask for void nope but i will tell you what he did at the end it's time to roll out a whole lot of fun i roll the fondant nice and thin to about an eighth of an inch and i need to make sure to roll enough of each color to cover all four sides and the top of one brick six bricks six different colors so keep in mind your measurements when you're rolling the colors and know which brick you want to cover in each color i love how i tell you guys this as if there's someone out there who's like you know what i'm gonna do this weekend make six lego bricks that's what i'm gonna do like just just make one you know what i mean make one make it bigger it'll be great to begin covering these cakes the first thing i do is measure the height of the cakes we're gonna get into a lot of measuring and then i cut strips of that color of fondant to that exact dimension so if it was three inches high i cut three inch strips of fondant now i apply two of those strips to either side of the cake and smooth them on with a fondant smoother i do this to all of my cakes each one being a different color the height is the most important and then make sure it's a bit longer than your kick or wider wider so confusing so now all six of my cakes have two sides covered chill the cakes before we trim then i hold up a ruler and carefully cut down i do this on all four sides on all six cakes now i can begin covering the back and front of the case this week on how to cake it step by step megan has made fall outfits out of sugar cookies also cassie is back with another fun cake for you guys it's an elephant taking a bubble bath wasn't cassie baked last week well apparently she wasn't and last week was jyoti's fancy cake slices you can see them all here jocelyn says sometimes you let me point in the wrong direction yeah you are pointing at the wrong direction well hello direct my direction here yeah no no no really what no now all four sides of all of our cakes are covered and we need to address the top of the cake so the reason i've cut all four panels on the side to the same height is because now if our cakes were crooked at all we can address it so if the cake dips down under and you have sort of a lip of fondant what we're gonna do is fill in the top of the cake with more buttercream if you measured each side and cut the panels if your cake was crooked you just end up with a crooked lego brick which i'd probably want well now you know so all of my cakes needed a bit of filling in except one it actually was a little too high at parts so i had to trim it now it's time to cut the fondant to place on top of each one of my cakes first i cut one side straight with a ruler and a knife then i line up my set square with the straight side that i cut and cut the perpendicular side straight as well now always make sure that your slab is still a bit larger than your cake because we want a bit of excess to trim and then carefully pick it up and line up those two straight edges with two perpendicular sides of your cake i really hope you're with me now what i need to do is trim the other two sides of fondant again with a sharp paring knife and a ruler to help and you just want to cut flush against the sides thank you so much it's like you designed it it is it's a lot like connie and i designed it isn't it the color it says how to cake it are we selling them no because there's only two right now and they're mine they're mine now what i need to do is create a fondant paste to patch any seams we won't be able to completely cover the seams but in my opinion i'd rather see straight sharp sides on a lego brick than have draped the fondant over and smoothed it because i don't have time for rounded sides on a lego brick they're extremely square i turn into the seam hider and i use my fondant paste to patch up any really visible seams i have to make a lot of fondant because i have to make six different colors of fondant you may have noticed that i still have extra fondant rolled out and that's a good thing because i need to make the round pegs that are on the top of lego bricks that's what makes lego stick together because i rolled my fondant out quite thin i need it to be a bit thicker to resemble the fondant pegs to glue it together i am brushing on a thin layer of water this just starts to dissolve the sugar and makes it sticky and it will glue fondant to fondant now i'm going to use a circle cutter to cut out my pegs i have to again i'm doing all this math in my head i know you can't see it but i'm super confused and i have to make sure to cut out enough pegs that will remain visible even after i stack the cakes does that make sense yeah okay i sustained uh an injury this episode while making this cake for my son it's a finger cot that's what's on my finger i need to try and cut out four circular pegs in each color for the configuration that i'm thinking of putting together again later did you plan the configuration in my head i thought about how i wanted the bricks to be configured spoiler alert it doesn't work out this is this isn't fun for you this is vital in cake decorating because it's it's not a solid object so no matter how much you measure and how much practice i have it rarely works out exactly the way you thought it was going to when it comes to things like this i've cut all of my circular pegs i'm just going to lay them on a board and put them in the fridge to chill because i don't want to add them to my cakes until it's been assembled i'm stacking my lego brick cakes onto a large wooden cake board that i had cut and i previously covered with green fondant now keep in mind that if i want this board to look like a pegboard i also have to cut a bunch of green pegs to add to this board later so i cut a whole bunch the first one i put down is the largest red brick i spread a little bit of royal icing and lay down that brick next week i'm making a cake for my american friends who are celebrating thanksgiving it's gonna be a slice see what i did there if you have a guess comment below and don't forget to subscribe to this channel and ring the notification bell so you know when that video is live now i place my blue brick perpendicular to the red one i place my yellow one on top um now before i stack the orange and purple together i do place the pegs on those cakes again use a ruler make sure they're evenly spaced from the sides and from each other and use a little bit of clear piping gel to glue them onto the surface of the cake for any cake that's going to have another cake on top of it i use dowels inserted inside to support it now it's very important that the yellow so the primary bricks the yellow blue and red i dowel them and stack them before adding the pegs because i want it to look like these legos were fit perfectly together with my orange and purple i add the pigs first then dowel because they're off to the side and they're not you know they're not stuck to each other could you not pick something that he likes that's easy he doesn't like anything easy he is obsessed with lego and ninjago i'm i'm gonna try and get him into like i don't know bouncy balls for next year look at this bouncy ball that's so bouncy and then next year i'll just make a round cake perfect i have to acknowledge that my son is turning five so i rolled out some white black and yellow fondant because i wanted to cut a five out and make it look like the lego logo so there's this youtube channel it's called ryan's toy review and ryan has these ginormous lego bricks in the background while he's playing with his mother and my son is obsessed first of all he always asks me why i don't introduce him to ryan because i don't know ryan and then he asked me where why don't i buy him those ginormous lego bricks so i caked him the ginormous lego bricks and before i served a tim i added a number five candle he loved it but then he proceeded to take the number five candle and repeatedly stab the lego bricks did you make this mom oh i love it i said i didn't it didn't take me days to make you that go ahead my brain doesn't hurt from all that math just go right ahead thanks for watching don't forget to check out megan's fall outfit cookies and cassie's elephant taking a bubble bath i'll see you next week\n"