It is Fall and many of the farmers seem to have trouble at this time of year with strange things in their fields.  I think I found out part of the problem.  It’s those darn UFO’s that are making Crop Circles and spooking all of the critters.

My daughter (Rachel) and I have managed to create an artist's adaptation of what many farmers have found in their fields mysteriously. We used a half sheet cake pan and decorated it according to our inspiration. We did not have the benefit of magnetic energy to get the frosting to lay down, just good old-fashioned technique and patience.

I had the fun of having my daughter, Rachel, help with this cake. I was teaching her a few new techniques and she came up with additional great ideas for the cake. Two minds are definitely better than one! You’ll be hearing more from and about her in the future.

To prepare your “dirt”, place the 1/2 cup brown sugar in a cup and add a few drops of chocolate brown food coloring gel. Mix well. You can add the turbinado sugar for a gravel look to your “dirt”.  The consistency you want is like coffee grinds.  Set aside for now.

Draw a sketch of what you want to do on the cake.  On this cake we wanted a dirt patch at the top corner, lots of room for the field and the crop circles. 

Find three different sized lids in your kitchen that will fit the scale of your field nicely. You can also use glass jars or anything you can find that works.  You are going to use the shape to gently mark the cake so that you have a guide to follow when you start piping. 

When the cake is thoroughly cooled, you can start decorating. 

If you have made a Chocolate cake you will need to only cover the garden corner with the brown frosting.  If you have made a white cake like I did you will need to apply a crumb coat of the dark icing so that the “dirt” will show through on the field lines.

Now is the time to transfer your design to your cake.  

Draw the area you will be using for the garden.  We use the back of a knife because it was long and handy but feel free to use anything that will work for you and can be easily cleaned.  Next mark the crop circles by gently placing the lids or what ever you have chosen on the cake or icing. Just press hard enough so that you can see the circle marks.  Last, mark the field lines.  It is OK to go through the circles, you will never see any of these marks when the cake is finished.  Again we used the knife in the push and lift method, not dragging the knife through the crumb coat icing.

Next comes the “dirt” that you set aside earlier.  If the cake was not crumb coated you will need to place a coating of the brown icing on your garden area and on the sides of the cake where the garden flows over the edge. 

Gently crumble the brown colored sugar over the icing and lightly press the sugar into the icing.  Don’t forget to also cover the sides of the cake where the brown icing is.

You can mark tractor tire lines for a little more detail if you want to.   

If you have a Lazy Susan, place the cake on it now.  Be careful!!!!!  The corners of the cake board can catch on your cloths, move the cake around and possible dump the cake.  If you don’t use the Lazy Susan or turntable, you will have to work carefully on the counter and turn the cake board by hand.    

If you want to practice your techniques now is the time.    

Prepare your piping bag with the coupler, grass piping tip and white practice icing.

While you are practicing, you can reuse that you have piped on the plate.  Just scoop it up and replace it back in the bag.  You will not be eating this icing so reusing it is perfectly OK.

You will first make a circle that will be the center of the circle.  The size of a nickel will do very nicely but don’t worry if it ends up being the size of a quarter.  After that is completed you will start making the rest of the circle.

My daughter uses a little Mantra for each “plant”   It is Squeeze, Plant, Slide.

Hold your piping bag straight up and down all of the time.  Hold the tip about 1/8 inch above the practice plate.  Squeeze the bag and allow the icing to fall to the plate, plant,  then slide the bag to the right about ½ inch to ¾ inch.  Release the pressure and the icing will break off and make your grass tips.  Your icing should look like the plants in a crop circle.  It is straight at the “root” and then is bent to the side.  The next step is to turn the cake board a little and repeat the same action by moving to the left about ½ inch and Squeeze, Plant, Slide.  The tips of your grass will cover over the “roots” of the previously made plant.  Turn your plate again and repeat. 

Repeat the process and many times as necessary to make your circle the desired size.

Now practice your field work. Hold the bag straight up and down.  Hold the tip about ¼ inch above the plate.  Squeeze the bag and allow the icing to fall to the plate. Rapidly move the bag straight up, releasing pressure on the bag.  The fast up movement will break the little strands off. They should be about ½ inch long.  The little plants will sometimes stand straight up and will sometime fall over.  Make sure that the tall field plants are taller than the crop circle for the best look.  

Fill your bag about half way with the peanut butter colored icing.  This should be the darkest of the 3 golden shades.  Start making the middle of the middle sized crop circle.  You’ll find this is the easiest way to work.  Finish the other 2 circles.   

For those of you that want to make a little garden patch, fill one of your little piping bags with the green and the other bag with the orange icing. Use tip #1 or trim a tiny bit off of the parchment bags point to match the size 1 tip.      

I made little cabbages behind the tractor and a little pumpkin patch in the front. 

Place the toothpicks into the edge of the cake or cut the bamboo skewers into 1/3 and place them around the edge. 

This part is up to you so you can be as creative as you care to be.  Just remember to keep things very tiny so that you keep the proper scale.