I was so excited to make a Doctor Who cake that I practically hugged the woman who asked me to do it.  Actually, in hindsight, I literally hugged the woman who asked me to do it.  And I had so much fun that I think I'll try a Dalek for my own upcoming birthday.
I started with two 10 inch cakes.  I was actually going for more accurate proportions but learned that you really can't stack my homemade chocolate cake 9 inches high.  It's much too dense and heavy.
I used paper to gauge the size that I was shooting for.  As you can see, what I wanted and what we actually ended up with were two very different shapes.  I wanted tall and slender but ended up with short and not so slender.
I leveled the cakes...
Then I cut them into 4 and 1/2 inch squares.
And here is where I made mistake number two (mistake number one being that I should have used a mix or lighter cake).  I sharpened a dowel using a pencil sharpener and stuck it in the cake board.  I even went as far as to put some hot glue in the hole so it was good and tight.  What I should have done from the start though was use three or four dowels.  One was definitely not enough to support this whole cake.
I then started stacking the cakes with buttercream in between each layer.  I had so much fun watching the cake get higher and higher that I completely forgot to take a picture of that stage.  After all 8 layers were stacked, I put on a crumb coat.  This is where it all started to unravel.  The cake was just too heavy.  It started to lean...BADLY.  It started to sink.....also badly.  The bottom layers started to compress and widen.  All of a sudden, my dowel was sticking out of the top of the cake.  It was a nightmare.  

I put it in the fridge with the hopes that I could halt further damage.  I had to prop it up at an angle to correct the leaning.  And I waited.  I was prepared to toss the whole thing and start over but I decided to let it sit overnight and see what I could do with it after it hardened.

In the morning I added two more dowels for support and trimmed the sides to make it more even.  I decided to go ahead with it because I really didn't want to start over...
The next step was making the fondant sides of the cake.  This is the first cake where I pieced the sides together (as opposed to laying a single piece of fondant over the whole thing.  I was tense though because I've seen all too often on Cake Boss where fondant sides peel away from the cake and it all falls apart.  I can't just run back to the bakery to fix something like that, so I came up with some plans to avoid it (which included me telling my friend that I couldn't guarantee it would hold up after it came down to room temperature).

First I measured the sides of the cake and drew a basic outline for the side panels...
Then I colored the fondant....
I cut out 8 side panels.  Four were pretty sturdy and four were as thin as I felt comfortable working with.  The thin ones were going to overlap the more sturdy ones after I had cut out the windows.
Next I started cutting out the windows on the thin panels...
Using water, I overlaid the window panels onto the thicker panels...
...and added details, like white squares to imitate light,  the little strip down the middle to separate the doors, door handles, and a key hole (which I dusted with silver).
Never before have I wished so badly that I had an edible printer....or a friend close by who had an edible printer.  But alas, that is a $300 expense that I really can not justify.  Had I had a printer, I could have printed out the actual Police Box signs for the door.  As is, I had to wing it.  I thought the easiest thing to do would be to use strips of black fondant and just roll the letters with white fondant.  
For the second sign, I used white fondant and a black edible marker.  Yes, I know.  I have horrible handwriting.  But it was for a birthday party, not a wedding.  It was good enough.  
Once I had all the panels ready to go, it got really fun.   Time to put it all together.  I started by spritzing the entire cake lightly with water.  The frosting was solid from the refrigerator and I needed it a bit moist to help hold the fondant on.  I put on the first side and then started putting all the sides around the cake.

Notice the dowel sticking out the top?  It was a good inch in the cake when I started...that's how much the cake compressed.
I noticed with past experience that once you bonded fondant with water, the fondant will usually tear before coming apart.  I was counting on this as I plotted to keep this thing together.  I wet each corner seam slightly and pressed them together the length of the wall. 
 In addition to that, I added a corner piece that had been wet to help bond the corner and hold it all in place and give it a bit more depth.
I added a square on top and the main body was done.  Time to start the top...
I bought a keychain that made Doctor Who sound effects (online from Amazon) because I thought it would be really cool if I could make the cake make the same noise that the Tardis makes when it takes off and lands.  I thought the easiest way to do this would be to conceal it in the thick top of the cake.  So I cut out some thick slabs of fondant and put the keychain right inside them (after covering it in plastic wrap to protect it.
I cut out a thin cover for it and punched a hole (using a small circle shaped cutter) where the right button was...
And added the little light and it was good to go.  The fondant muffled the sound quite a bit, but it still functioned so I was happy.  I kept the top separate from the cake until just before the party.  I didn't think it was a good idea to put the keychain in the cold...  So I attached the top just before leaving to deliver the cake.
And here it is, all ready to go the the party.  So much fun!  Thanks as usual for reading my silly antics.  

Brandi :-)
 
Sorry that I haven't posted in FOREVER!  I've had a really  busy couple of months.  But fear not, I have several posts on the way and at least one more in the making.

I made this Black Tie Mousse Cake for one of my Christmas desserts.  It's an Olive Garden copycat recipe.  Here is where I got the recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/the-real-black-tie-mousse-cake-by-olive-garden-392181

This was a really fun dessert to make.  It was different than any dessert that I'd made before.  People on the site kept talking about how many steps it took to make and how much time it took.  I've realized that I must make really complex desserts because I thought it was pretty easy.  I did learn a thing or two, and I followed some tips from others, so now I'll share them with you.


The first deviation had to do with the bottom layer, the chocolate cake.  Instead of using a box mix, I used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake.  I'm obsessed with this cake!  It is by far the best scratch recipe that I have ever found.    https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=184

I also read a lot of complaints that the cake that was baked in a cake pan didn't fit properly in the springform.  So I baked my cake in the springform that I knew I was going to use.  This way I knew it would be the right size.
After baking and cooling the cake, I was ready to start.  I trimmed the top off the cake to make it level and put it back in the springform.  The cake had tightened up and was still smaller than the pan so I kind of stretched it and flattened it a bit to make it fit the pan.
This was such a fun experiment for me because it had a lot of firsts!  This was the first time I've made mousse, custard, or chocolate ganache.  It was also the first time that I put chocolate chips on the side of a cake and made those pretty swirly's on the top.  So I really had no idea how it was going to turn out.
I followed the instructions to make the mousse and had no problem.  
Then I went onto the third layer (the vanilla custard).  Some people said that you have to double the custard recipe to get the amount shown in the picture (from the recipe site that I used).  I wasn't concerned about having it that thick though, so I just made the amount called for in the recipe.  

Now you custard makers already know this, but the biggest thing I learned while making this cake is that custard curdles if you cook it too long.  Now I know.  As I was cooking it, it started to separate.  I panicked and took it off the stove, stirring it until it came back together.  Luckily, this is exactly what I was supposed to do to save it and I didn't have to start over.  

 
I continued to follow the instructions for the chocolate ganache.  This ganache was wonderful!  I have been looking for a good recipe for a while, and will definitely keep this one because it was really easy and tasted heavenly!
I knew that if I tried to cover the cake with the ganache I would turn it into a sloppy, unprofessional mess, so I did a little cheat. I went ahead and pored the top while it was still in the pan.  I made the white chocolate swirls, then I put it in the fridge to set up.  
A friend told me how to make the swirls.  Simple melt some white chocolate and pipe it in stripes on the warm ganache.  I didn't even bother with a pastry bag.  I just piped it from a zip lock bag that had it's corner cut off.  
Then I ran a knife back and forth perpendicular to the strips to make the pretty swirls.  Pretty, huh?  You'd think I knew exactly what I was doing (as opposed to just hoping that it would actually work the way she said it would).  

After I was done with the pattern, I put the cake back in the fridge to set up.
Once it was set up and the ganache had thickened a bit I removed the pan rim and frosted the sides.  Normally I would have transferred the cake before frosting the sides to a pretty cake plate, but honestly, I had so much going on that day.  I really didn't care about the ugly serving plate.  I had been out of town until Christmas Eve morning and had about a million other cooking projects to finish that day, so I just let it be.  This goes along great with one of my baking philosophies.  Not everything has to be perfect.  Sometimes things are good enough when it's just the amount you can handle.  
After frosting the sides, I used mini chocolate chips as a garnish.  I have a few thoughts about this as well.  While the chips certainly looked pretty, the problem that I had using them is that the quality of the chips didn't match the wonder of the ganache.  So when I got a bite with the chips, it was like this smooth wonderful ganache mixed in with hard waxy tasteless chips.  I found myself not eating the parts with chips at all.  A possible solution to this could be to use a finer chocolate and maybe shave it (or finely chop it).  Or omit the chips all together.

The other thing I learned is in regards to decorating sides of cakes.  I used to think it worked best to put your chips in your hand, then try and pat them on the cake.  I've since figured out that you can hold them in one hand, then use the second hand as a shield on the cake and drop them down between your hand and the cake.  This worked really well.
So here was the finished product.  It turned out great and impressed my dinner guests.  All in all, it was a really fun dessert to make.  Hopefully my tips can help you if you decide to give it a try.