I based it on this map of the Hundred Acre Wood as illustrated by E.H. Shepard.
As I was plotting how to do this, I faced a number of problems. One, I had to use fondant. There was no other way to really execute the map. I knew I could water down the food coloring and get a good approximation of "paint" but it simply wouldn't have worked on regular old butter cream. I had to use fondant. I hate fondant. I've worked with the store bought stuff before and it tastes about as good as modeling clay. I needed something that behaved like modeling clay and could create a smooth canvas for my painting, but I didn't want to sacrifice flavor.
So, I'd been reading of this marshmallow fondant on various blogs and it sounded like a good deal--and pretty simple. Here's a link to the recipe on Cake Journal. One tip: when you're ready to roll it out, sprinkle sifted powdered sugar on your counter. That seemed to be the only way to get it off the board in one piece.
The other problem was paint. I was very concerned that it would bleed. I'd read somewhere that adding grain alcohol to food coloring would prevent that since it would evaporate quickly, just leaving behind the color. I didn't have any grain alcohol, so I used strawberry vodka, which seemed appropriate.
Once the cake was frosted, I draped the rolled out fondant onto it, trimmed, tucked, and set to work painting. I treated it like watercolor painting--blocking out white space for later painting and then applied some color washes in spots that I would later define with more layers of color or outline in black as in the Shepard illustration.
It was another one of those all-night-ers and the big bummer was that I had to be at the hospital early the next morning for pre-op testing (did I mention this dang gall bladder is coming out on Tuesday next? Yay!!) Alas, a gal has to have a nice cake at her baby shower. And I was determined that it should be so for my work colleague.
Ultimately, we had a very nice shower for her. Lovely flowers in vases, doilies, delicious snacks, loads of presents, and yes, the cake wasn't half-bad either.
