Balancing Act

I don’t really have an innate sense of the human form. But more and more these days, I’m asked to make cakes with figures on them. Sometimes they’re straightforward – a bride and groom, singers, people just standing around. I’ve mastered those just fine. But when the figures are engaged in some kind of activity, that’s where the difficulty sets in. Suddenly there are acrobats, swimmers, Spiderman scaling a wall, basketball and football players, the list goes on. Now I have to think about muscles and which way an ankle can reasonably bend. If a gymnast is doing a back flip, where do the hands end up? Which way are the thumbs facing?

Some of the time, I actually get down on the floor and assume the poses I’m trying to recreate. The back flip was especially challenging. Spiderman was no picnic either. It’s at times like these that I ask myself why I don’t just buy a jointed wooden model of the human body.

I have no acceptable answer to that question.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached this latest challenge. It was really the angle of the biker’s torso and shoulder vis a vis the legs that was puzzling. And also his head. So basically all of it. I considered wheeling my own bicycle into the kitchen and getting on. However, I would have had to carry it up a flight of stairs and while it’s actually a ¾ sized bike (my 14^th birthday present – Thanks, Mom!) with comically outdated narrow wheels, it still is rather unwieldy. Particularly when called upon to share space with my kitchen furniture. Not to mention it would be somewhat difficult balancing on the bike while sculpting a fondant figure. Sanity prevailed.

I found a picture online, studied it carefully and attempted to recreate it. I failed to mention that the birthday boy is 11, so this cyclist was meant to look like a child.