One of the most popular Japanese Animation for guys was Dragonballz!
I used to watch this anime with my brother when I was young! The fighting scenes were always very intense! I have created the character Goku for a birthday cake! :)
Here are a couple of reference pictures of the plastic Goku toys from BANDAI as a reference.
This is a mini Chibi style toy of Goku - it's a child like version of him which I think looks the best for the cake. The adult version of Goku is scary and is very difficult to make partly due to all his muscle details on his legs and arms...haha!
The cake is vanilla bean cake and strawberry buttercream.I begin by making all the body parts individually of each other, so later I can attach them together with toothpicks.
Here I have constructed Goku's upper body and his legs with are the pants of his fighting uniform.
I rolled out orange colored sugar paste and cut out a neck hole in the shirt for Goku's uniform. I made a hole for his neck area and will gather all shirt together at the bottom to attach to the lower body! You can make the gumpaste stick by brushing a little water on the area you are attaching.
Then I used a tool to put creases under where Goku's arm pits would be. Using a toothpick the in insert the upper body into his legs and let is harden in a plastic flower making tray. Once this hardens I will make the little black belt and just tie it around his waist.
For the birthday polka dot, I cut out a large green polka dot and used edible food color pens and wrote Happy Birthday Nicholas. I used speciality number cookie cutters to cut out the "2" and the "5" for the "25' on the polka dot!
Goku's head is the most complicated and largest part of the entire body. You must make his head out of sugar-paste and let it harden for 2 days.
Once the head of the figure has harden, you can apply the hair by sculpting it to the head.
I did Goku's hair in 2 stages. Once with just the base hair and then I attached the spikes seperately.
Here is a pictures of Goku's body parts completed and ready for assembly onto the cake.
Here I have part of Goku's main boy assembled onto the cake to keep him put and then next to attach his arms to his body. To create the land stump effect I used a tan colored fondant and then made green decorating icing and piped greenery/ scrub like grass on top and the sides of the land stump. I create the rocky wall I used a fondant tool and carved lines along the sides of the cake.
Here is a close up of the Goku cake completed without the Dragonballs. I have just completed the green bush/scrub piping on the edge border of the cake.
Now I will use a pastel yellow fondant and roll out a couple of "Dragonballs" to put onto the cake.