Making Hal 9000 – Part 5: It’s Full of Stars

Read part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 of the Hal 9000 Cake Project

Now that the base cake was done and the difficult, if somewhat lacking, candy eye were completed, it was time to add the details and finish the cake.

First, I needed to add a grill texture to the bottom of the cake to simulate Hal’s speaker grill. I put the frosted cake back in the freezer, saying another “thank you” to my wife for that tip, and let the frosting harden up a bit. Removing it from the freezer, I took my chef’s knife and make very shallow cuts in the frosting, horizontal and vertical, creating a passable speaker grid.

Next, I shaped a piece of blue colored fondant for the name label at the top and put the candy eye in place. I used white cake gel to add the trim and write HAL 9000, as well as cover up the seam around Hal’s eye.

I’ve decided I don’t like cake gel for these kinds of things. It was too gooey and didn’t give me great results. I had already resigned myself to getting whatever I got with this cake, though. The mission was finished. It’s degree of success had yet to be measured.

I don’t know if the result was worth all the trouble or not. The cake impressed my wife and kids, even if it wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. I did learn a few things along the way. I keep telling myself, “Next time, I’ll know this and can try that,” but I’m not sure they’re be a next time. Not with Hal, anyway.

Maybe I can make candy lightsabers. Hmmm …

Making Hal 9000 – Part 4: I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That, Dave

Read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the Hal 9000 Cake Project

Then next problem in the mission came from the cake, itself. Or, rather, from it’s covering.

Black fondant would have given me a smoother finish, but I don’t like to completely cover cakes in fondant. I don’t like eating that much fondant in one sitting. I prefer butter cream frosting so, I settled on chocolate frosting and a brown Hal.

I cut the cooled cake in half, placed one half on top the other, and glued them together with frosting. I next trimmed the sides to get the correct dimensions and a smoother edge. So far so good. The trouble was, the frosting wouldn’t stick. Or rather, it stuck too much. The crumb of the cake was so tender that whenever I tried to spread it over a trimmed side, it would tear the cake apart. It didn’t matter how much I whipped and mixed and soften the frosting, every stroke with the knife tore piece after piece of cake away from my beautiful rectangle.

Unlike David Bowman, my shipmates weren’t dead. My wife knows that when she sees me sitting at the table with my head in my hands and swearing, it’s a pretty clear sign that something is wrong. Responding to my distress call, she came over, assessed the situation, and suggested I put the cake in the freezer for a little while.

My wife has taken one more cake decorating classes than I have. That’s not hard to do, considering I’ve never taken any. The point is, she knows of what she speaks. She just doesn’t like the actual work involved in decorating cakes, so doesn’t do it very often She happy to let me be the glutton for punishment that I am.

The freezer trick worked wonders. Unfortunately, I had to make a run to the store to pick up more supplies. I ran out of chocolate frosting 3/4’s of the way through.

Things were looking up, though. I had the frosted cake, and a defective candy eye. The rest was just details.

Making Hal 9000 – Part 3: Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the Hal 9000 Cake Project

As you can see in the picture, the set up on the scoops isn’t very solid. I needed a way to make them as level as possible while the candy cooled and hardened, so I put them on top of two bowls. As I stuck the red eye into the candy goo from the second batch, the scoop tipped, pouring molten candy over my cupboard. Speaking in tongues, I worked as fast as I could to pour more candy in the scoop and move the red light piece back to the center without burning myself. This worked great until pushing things around upended the ice cream scoop, dumping more candy.

The third time was not the charm. This time I tipped it over trying to clean up the candy that had spilled. It was like a little kid. Get something clean just in time for the kid to make another mess.

Finally I got things settled, with the red light buried much deeper than I’d hoped. By that time I was tired of it, though. Sometimes projects aren’t finished so much as they are abandoned. I would live with whatever the result was, or trash the candy eye altogether. Hal would not get the best of me any more than he did David Bowmen.

If that had been the only problem, I might not have lost my mind.