Maker's Mark Cake and Some Sulpting Tips

My brother's birthday is on Christmas, so my family likes to celebrate his birthday each year separate from Christmas. This year we decided to have a dinner at my parents house with his favorite foods, and of course I made the cake. I was undecided on what exactly to make for his cake this year, but my husband suggested a Maker's Mark barrel, which I thought was a fantastic idea.I think the cake turned out great, and most importantly my brother loved it!

 Isn't my nephew the cutest!

 That's a lot of cake!

 So, I thought I would show you so in progress pictures, and give some tips for beginners on how to sculpt a cake.

1. If this is your first time sculpting a cake, start with something easy so you can build your skills. This barrel was an easy cake to sculpt, because I stacked an 8", 9", 10" 9", and 8" cakes, then sculpted the sides of the cake a little bit to form the barrel.
2. Make sure you have a lot of reference photos to look at when sculpting. Try to get photos of the object from a lot of different angles.
3.  When sculpting always take off a little bit at a time, so that you don't end up with unwanted holes.
4.  If you end up taking to much cake off there is a solution so don't panic. First, take some of the cake scraps, and and icing to it to make a large cake/icing mixture (similar to a cake ball), then add icing to the gap, and form the cake mixture into the hole to match the rest of the cake. This is a better solution then adding more icing, which can later cause problems. 
5. I always like to stack, and fill my cakes, then sculpt, and then crumb coat after sculpting. Also some sculpted cakes will need internal support that will need to be added before sculpting the cake.  
6. When your ready to cover your cake in fondant, if you cannot cover it in one piece try to place a seam somewhere where it will not be noticed.
7. Decorate, and Eat!

 I hoped this helped some beginners take the leap into sculpting. Just have fun with it, and eat whatever you mess up!