Monster House cake

October is a big deal in our house.  Both of the boys' birthdays fall in the middle of the month, and Ben and I adore Halloween.  We watch Halloween shows and movies on Nickelodeon and Disney over and over again (how many Halloweentown movies are there anyway?).  One of our favorites is Monster House, and Ben decided he wanted the cake for his birthday party to look like the house in that movie...something like this:

But the party was at a gymnastics place and I wanted to do cupcakes for ease.  We agreed the house would be more decoration-- like a cupcake tower topper-- that we would bring back home.  I considered using a Styrofoam structure, but really.  What’s the fun in that?  I went with a giant rice krispie instead.

Since this was more showpiece and less dessert, I wanted to be sure it was stable enough to hang around for a couple of days.  I coated the entire thing in chocolate, then cream cheese frosting, and finally fondant.

Lots of details followed...poured sugar for the glass windows, little LED lights to go inside the windows, airbrushing...and chocolate-dipped grape stems for trees. Ben loved how it turned out!