In the 1986 film Blue Velvet, a young man comes across a human ear in a field. He begins an investigation to find the owner, resulting in a journey into his hometown’s seedy underbelly. This theme of discarded flesh fascinated me. Under what circumstances would you abandon a body part? I wanted to portray the limb as not only lost but also forgotten, and maybe languishing among fallen leaves or weeds. Serve this cake, and you and your guests can concoct your own backstory of the errant limb—a zombie attack, perhaps, or a warning message from mobsters?
• 12 x 18 in. (30 x 45 cm) wooden cake board, 1/2 in. (1 cm) thick
• 12 x 18 in. (30 x 45 cm) piece Astroturf
• hot-glue gun
• 6 ft. (1.8 m) green ribbon, to trim board edges
• airbrush
• scissors
• arm template
• foam core, for arm shape
• craft, serrated, and small paring knives
• large piping bag and quick-ice tip
• spatula
• modeling tool
• rolling pin
• scrub brush
• paintbrushes
• airbrush colors: ivory, red, green, and black
• 1 sheet wafer paper
• 1 recipe red velvet cake batter, baked in 1/4 sheet pan
• 3 cups (700 ml) decorator’s buttercream icing
• 8 oz. (225 g) modeling chocolate
• 13/4 lb. (800 g) white fondant, tinted fleshtone color
• 2 oz. (55 g) white fondant
• black petal dust
Cover the cake board with the sheet of Astroturf, using the hot-glue gun to attach turf to board. Fix green ribbon around sides of board with hot-glue gun. Trim excess.
Spray Ivory airbrush color over one side of sheet of wafer paper. Let dry. Turn sheet over and airbrush other side with ivory color. Let dry, than cut into fine strips of varying lengths to serve as weeds or straw. Set aside.
Using the arm template as a guide, cut out an arm shape from the foam core using the craft knife.
Attach the foam arm shape to the top of the chilled cake with a dab of buttercream icing. Following the outline of the arm shape, cut out the cake with the serrated knife.
Carefully split the cake in half horizontally using the serrated knife. With large piping bag and quick-ice tip, pipe a generous layer of buttercream over cut side of one half. Place other cut half of cake on top.
Cut out strips of leftover cake and attach with dabs of buttercream to the upper part of the arm to add height and bulk.
Using the small paring knife, carefully carve the top of the arm to create a rounded shape.
Pipe butter cream over the top and sides of the arm, using the large piping bag and quick-ice tip. Smooth over the surface of the icing with a spatula.
Roll out balls and snakes of modeling chocolate in varying sizes and use to build up features, such as veins and muscle details, on the arm and hand.
Roll out five sausage-shaped pieces of modeling chocolate to form the fingers and the thumb. Attach to hand end of iced cake. Shape and add detail with modeling tool.
Roll out the fleshtone-tinted fondant onto a lightly dusted surface to a thickness of about 1/4 in. (5 mm).
Loosely wrap the rolled-out sheet of fondant around the rolling pin, then carefully unfurl the fondant over the top of the iced cake.
Carefully trim away excess fondant from around the arm and general hand shape with the craft knife. Tuck cut edges of the fondant neatly under cake. Reserve leftover fondant.
Use craft knife or small paring knife to cut away the fondant around the fingers. With modeling tool, tuck cut fondant edges under the fingers to round them off.
With end of modeling tool, carefully press fondant around vein and muscle details to emphasize shape. Mark knuckle detail on fingers and thumb.
Mark out the nails on fingers and thumb with tip of craft knife. Shape nails and add detail with modeling tool.
Press the scrub brush lightly over the entire surface of the fondant skin to create the look of pores. Set cake aside to firm up for 1-2 hours.
Carefully lift cake onto the Astroturf-covered board, using a few dabs of buttercream icing to fix cake in position.
Roll out a piece of fleshtone-tinted fondant large enough to cover end of the arm. Using scrub brush, indent heavily with texture. Attach to severed end of arm with dabs of water. Trim edges.
Airbrush the severed end of the arm with light coats of red color. Spray light layers of green and black color over the entire arm and hand for a gangrene-ish look.
Roll out a sausage of white fondant, about 3/4 in. (2 cm) thick and 11/2 in. (4 cm) long. Cut into two pieces. Fix with water onto severed end of arm. Imprint texture on “bone” ends with scrub brush. Lightly airbrush red.
Using a small paintbrush, drip red airbrush color liberally over the severed end of the arm.
Using the modeling tool, pull up the nail ends to create cracked nails. Use black petal dust to emphasize veins and skin creases and to cover arm with a layer of “dirt.”
Scatter the paper weeds, prepared in step 2, over the Astroturf grass around the arm.
