Westward Bound Cake

Step 1

Bake and cool cake. Trim 3/4 in. off height of carriage crown to accommodate luggage. Ice sides and top of cake smooth; build up window and wheel spoke areas. Use toothpick to mark 1 in. square window on door, 4 1/2 x 2 in. door and 2 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. windows on stagecoach. Outline stagecoach with tip 5 and cover with tip 16 stars. Pipe tip 5 handle on door. Pipe tip 6 driver's seat and side brake (smooth with finger dipped in cornstarch). Use tip 5 to pipe wheel spokes, tip 10 to outline wheels and tip 55 to pipe bands on wheel rims. Use tip 4 to outline center of wheel and fill in with tip 6.

Step 2

For heads in windows, pipe tip 12 faces, tip 2 noses, eyes, moustaches, mouths and hair. Pipe tip 6 hat with tip 102 brim and tip 2 hatband and tip 3 neck scarf. Break graham crackers in various sizes for luggage and ice smooth; score lines and needed with spatula. Pipe trims on luggage pieces with tip 2. Attach luggage to top of cake with icing. Pipe tip 45 band above top of coach for storage area support. Overpipe tip 45 band for dimension and pipe side supports with tip 6. Pipe tip 18 rope bottom border.

*Combine Brown with Red-Red for brown shown.