Thursday, August 20, 2009

How to make a sitting Spongebob Cake

Since my son watches me make cake after cake for other little children, he was so very excited when it was his turn to pick a cake and enjoy it all for himself. He decided on a Spongebob cake and it HAD to have a crabby patty. I was more than happy to make it for him!

Here's how I did it -
I started by baking two 10 inch square cakes. I cut them in half and torted the layers.

I stacked the cakes and filled them with fudge and mint chip buttercream.
I cut my dowels to the proper height and inserted them into the cake.
On another cardboard, I repeated my stacking and fillings with my other 10" cake.
With a sharp knife, I cut down my cardboards to the same size as the cakes. I then stacked the cakes on top of each other.
I then carved the cakes to look like Spongebob by tapering the bottom section. Next, I covered him in buttercream and put him in the refrigerator to chill (about 30 mins).
Next, I used my melon baller to create Spongebob's bumpy edges.  And who's going to know if you pop those extra little bites into your mouth.  :)
I then pushed a sharpened wooden dowel through the middle of both cakes until it was no longer sticking out of the top.  *If you are traveling with this cake be sure to push this center dowell all the way into a cake drum. (I use another dowell to help push it all the way through the drum.)

Next, was my favorite part - the decorating! I started by trimming the excess cardboard with an exacto knife and covered Spongebob in panels of fondant. After draping the fondant on the cake, I cut it to the perfect size with my exacto knife. Repeating on all sides. I used my ribbon cutter to make his pants and shirt out of fondant.

Using the end of my rolling pin, I pushed dents into Spongebob's body. I used round cutters for eyes and a clay gun make the edges. His mouth, feet and legs were all cut and formed by hand out of fondant. I rolled a log shaped piece of yellow fondant and inserted a skewer for his nose. I also used skewers to hold his arms in place. The crabby patty and other decorations on the board were hand modelled out of fondant.
Here is my handsome 4 year old son and his Spongebob cake. He's my sweetie!!

81 comments:

  1. Very cute cake! The step by step directions are great also - thanks for sharing.

    I would love to taste the mint chip buttercream it sounds delicious :)

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  2. Absolutely great! Best Spongebob cake I've seen! What a lucky boy to have you for a Mom. Thanks for sharing the step by step also.

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  3. I love this! I am going to try it for my oldest boys birthday next week!

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  4. I do not speak much English, thank you for this beautiful cake and how hacerla.UN greeting from Spain have a really nice blog.
    Los Mol

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  5. Spongebob rocks! Your son is sooo lucky!

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  6. Amazing, thanks for the making of... I want to making bob sponge cake for my son...
    A kiss from Spain

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  7. That's a lucky boy! what a talented mom! Great job :)

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  8. Wauw... Very cool :-) And very cute boy you have. I will save your sponge bob cake. Its so cool. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Never decorated a cake like this before, followed your step by step instructions and it came out amazing, was a hit at the party!!!

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  10. Vanessa - I'm so glad your cake was a hit!

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  11. I'm making one this coming weekend for my niece's 2nd birthday....I'll let you know how it turns out!

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  12. hey how much fondant did you end up using for this cake im going to attempt it this weekend for my sons 3rd birthday

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  13. You are awesome! My soon to be 5 year old wants a cake like this for his birthday and I didn't know where to begin. Thank you for sharing!!

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  14. The cake turned out awesome. Just wondering how it tasted? I've heard fondant isn't the greatest tasting.

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  15. Anonymous- Thanks! In my opinion, the only fondant that tastes bad is the Wilton brand stuff. I like to put a layer of buttercream under the fondant so you hardly even taste it.

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  16. Thank you so much! I'm excited about trying to make this cake. I was going to have a similar one made but they wanted $165.00 which is out of my budget. Thank you so much for posting the great step by step directions & pics. Very helpful!

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  17. About how many people did this cake feed?

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  18. Anonymous - This would serve around 30.

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  19. what kind of fondant do you use if you don't like the taste of the wilton brand?

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  20. That cake looks so cute...but I have a question....did you use a total of three 10 inch square cakes....2 at the beginning, torted and filled, placed cardboard on top and then placed the other 10 inch?

    How tall was this cake?

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  21. The Cake is Amazing, can you tell me how you cut it ?

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  22. The cake if Fab! I am going to do a test run this week and see if I can make this for my little guys b-day.

    Question: how much fondant do I need to buy? And what color of Yellow did you use?

    Thanks

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  23. Anonymous - Thanks for the nice comment. I would buy at least 5 lbs of fondant. Satin Ice and FondX are my favorite which you can buy from Global Sugar Art or CalJavaonline.com. The yellow I used was from Americolor called lemon yellow. Good Luck!

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  24. Thankyou..Thankyou...Thankyou for your instructions on how to make spongebob!....I made this cake for my niece today,And am just back from the party,It was a hit!...Tasted great and looked excellent many comments made..You are a star many thanks Mandy x

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  25. Hi, I'm Pam
    Please put more steps of different cakes on here it's very helpful!!

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  26. im making this for my sons first birthday

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  27. I am planning to make this in pink for my daughters 8th birthday. I am wondering how you attached the panels together so nicely. Did you just pinch it together and shape with your fingers? I have made 4 or 5 of these types of cakes and with each one I am scared that it won't turn out. I usually use a cake in a book with detailed intructions and make my own changes as I go along. I was planning on making a flat spongebob since it looked easier, but yours is the only one with detailed instructions. Also, what did you use to stick the eyes on? Maybe I will try and post a picture for you if it turns out. Spongebob Pink Pants may actually end up with a tiara too!

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  28. A pink spongebob.. how cute! For the edges I used a clay gun to make a fondant rope and lined the egdes with it. I use gum glue (tylose powder mixed with a little water) to glue things into place. I would love to see a picture of the pink spongebob. Good luck!

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  29. I finished with my pink spongebob. I have to admit that I didn't think that I would make it. I had some massive issues with the stability of my cake and after it toppled over I had to start again. Luckily I had only begun frosting with buttercream when it happend. I ended up doing spongbob lying flat. I wanted to do a project with step by step directions but instead I had to wing it. I would be happy to share a photo with you. Please let me know how to do it.
    Bobbi Jo (bobbijo@croisanhills.com)

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  30. Bobbi - I would love to see the spongebob pic! Feel free to post a link to it in the comments section or send to me directly. stephanie@cakefixation.com

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  31. Thank you for posting how to make spongebob sitting. You said you used a 10x10 pan it looks like 1/4 sheet pan cake. Can you please tell me how many cakes you used, and how many dowels where used and what kind of boards did you use. Please e-mail me back and let me know if you can I have a cake due next month so please ASAP.
    grandmabear1957@yahoo.com
    Debbie

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  32. Debbie, I did not use a sheet pan for this. I used 2 10" square pans. I used 4 plastic straw dowels and one sharpened wooden dowel for the center. The boards were cardboards. Good luck!

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  33. Thank you for posting pics and instructions! Very helpful to those of us just starting out. I do have a few questions for you though. Is there a trick to putting the fondant panels on? What is to keep the fondant from sliding right down? Also, did you make the arms and legs ahead of time? They seem to be the perfect lengths! Any tips on the shoes? Sorry for all of the questions but you did such a great job! Thanks for any tips and advise you can give!

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  34. Hi Michelle,

    There's no real trick to putting the panels on. I just rolled out my fondant, draped it over one side and cut off the excess with an exacto knife. Make sure your cake is REALLY cold when doing this so you dont make a mess of the buttercream.

    The cake isnt too tall so I didnt have problems with it sliding down.

    I don't recall making the arms and legs in advance. It probably would have helped though.

    The shoes were just fondant rolled into an oval shape and then I scored the bottom heel with a modeling tool. Easy! :) Good luck!

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  35. Thank you so much for your help! So if the buttercream is super cold, the fondant still sticks to it ok? This will be my third time covering a cake with fondant but my first 3D one. Also, I see that you did most of the decorating first and then moved him to your board. How do you move him without disaster? When I move a cake I usually use a spatula to lift and then use my hands, but I have never done such a large and tall cake before. I'd hate to get him all finished and then have him fall...I'd cry!

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  36. Michelle, I use a swiss meringue and it sticks very well. If you use a crusting buttercream you will have to wet it with water (use a spray bottle or wet paper towel) to get it to stick.

    To move cakes I just use my offset spatula. I also like to "glue" my cakes down onto the cake drum with chocolate melts. It keeps it from falling over. :)

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  37. Thank you so much! You have been a great help! I'm crossing my fingers that it will all work out! :) No matter what, at least I can say I tried! Thanks again, it's nice to have someone that is so willing to help out!

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  38. Hello... I saw your amazing cake and detailed description, and this was JUST what I was looking for! I have a few questions.... I'm currently in the process of making this cake. I hope you don't mind answering a few questions for me:
    Did you dye your fondant and how did you get brown?
    What did you use as the base, that the cake sits on? (the blue board)
    Can you get Gum Glue at a hobby store?
    Where did you get the dowels?
    Once you finished the cake.. how did you store it until you served it?
    AND LASTLY... Once you moved your cake from the cake pedestal to the blue board thing, how did you get it to stick without falling over?

    Thank you sooooooo much for taking the time to answer my questions! This process you made SAVED my life!!!

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  39. I dont mind answering questions. :) I did dye my fondant by kneading brown coloring gel (found at the craft store)into my fondant. The blue board is a cake drum that I covered in blue fondant. Dowels can also be bought at the craft store. I always store my cake in the refig. overnight and then let them sit out a few hours before the party to come down to room temp. I also like to "glue" my cakes down onto the cake drum with chocolate melts.

    Hope your cake turns out wonderful!

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  40. I just wanted to let you know that my Spongebob took a long time to finish but in the end he was a success! Thank you so much for all of your help! :)

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  41. Michelle, I'm so glad your cake was a success!! Decorating cakes is sooo time consuming. I dont thik I've ever made a cake that took less than 5 hours to decorate. But it's totally worth it in the end. :)

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  42. My husband wants to make my daughter a spongebob cake for her birthday, and this will be his first time doing something like this, and this is great..Thanks for posting this up..Awsome job

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  43. Hi, I am making this cake for my daughter's 2nd bday this weekend and was wondering what type of cake you made this out of..sponge or just basic cake mix??

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  44. Thanks Joanna!

    Whitney, Here are a couple recipes for you.

    http://cakecentral.com/recipes/1953/super-enhanced-cake-formula

    http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2322/white-almond-sour-cream-cake-wasc

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  45. Hi
    I am going to try to make this cake for my Grandson's 2nd Birthday..The 13th of November.This only my second cake and the 1st one was soooo sad:{. How do you transport it from one place to another? I tried to make my fondant and it was awful!!!I used a marsh-mellow
    fondant recipe..Turned out worse than PEEPS and twice as gooey.

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  46. Hi
    I am planning to attempt to make the SB cake this week. I have many questions but one specifically..How do you transport it, and can I use 2 0r 3 cake boards to place my cake on...
    this will be for my Grandson's 2nd birthday and family...My last cake was soooo sad it was pitiful:{

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  47. Anonymous, I use cake drums because they are more sturdy than cardboard rounds. Yes, you could use a stack of cardboards instead of a drum. I also like to glue the cake down to my board with choclate candy melts. I never had too much luck making fondant either. Buying it is the way to go! :) I hope you cake turns out fantastic!

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  48. Hi! Let me first say that your SB cake is awesome! Your work is such an inspiration! My neighbor asked me to make a SB cake for her grandson's birthday party. I jumped on the Internet and came across your blog. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I'm a visual learner so this helped answer a lot of my questions. The only thing is that I don't have a 10 inch square. I only have a 9. Do you think that will work? I too am afraid that he will fall while being transported. Any tips? I just got into cake decorating and loving it! I can't wait to get started on this cake. Wish me luck! Thanks again!!
    -Angie

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  49. I absolutely love this cake!!!! People keep asking about the stability. That's my question too!!! How top heavy is he? Seems like he would want to bend & topple. You felt confident transporting him? Thanks in advance!!

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  50. Sorry, one more question. How dis you attach the arm that is going straight down towards the cake drum? I can see how you did the other arm, but can't figure out the other. Doing the SB cake this weekend... So nervous! Thanks again!
    -Angie

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  51. Angie, I think I just glued it onto his side and then again on the board. I'm pretty sure I didnt use a dowel on that one. :)

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  52. Hi, love the cake, im thinking of doing the same. just wondering though, did you have to put dowels in the top section of your cake, you put them in the bottom section, wasnt to sure if you did the same on the top though. Or did you only put that 1 wooden dowel through the whole thing without any in the top half?

    Thanks heaps.... Vanessa.

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  53. I did not put dowels into the top section. The reason for the dowels on the bottom is to support the weight of the top layer. So, I put 4 on the bottom and then one sharpened through the whole thing.
    Good luck!

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  54. I love it! Great job and thank you for the tutorial.

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  55. okay, this may be a dumb question, but I only have one because your tutorial and Q&As have been so thorough. When you push the sharpened dowel through the cake, do you premade the holes in the cardboard or will it go through the cardboard easily? Also, what have you found the easiest way to sharpen your dowels? Thank you again. I LOVE your cake and your site!

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  56. I sharpen my wooden dowel with a pencil sharpener and then push it (while twisting it too) through the cardboards(no premade holes). If you are traveling with this cake it will need to go all the way down into your cake drum, which i did not show in this tutorial. You can do it!! :)

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  57. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this tutorial. I followed it and was able to make one for a friend. I will try to send you a picture. Thanks!
    Angela

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  58. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5229/5644082153_df675fa73c_s.jpg

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  59. This is one of the best cakes I saw. You are such a good cake decorator =)

    Could you please tell me if you had any trouble cutting this cake? Did it try to fall apart, get squashed or was it difficult in any way?

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  60. Angela, that is an awesome spongebob cake! Thank you so much for sharing the picture!!

    Anonymous, I just used a sharp knife and started at the top. It's pretty easy to cut.

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  61. Thanks for sharing this great tutorial.
    I just wanted to let you know that someone out there has this tutorial on their website, misrepresenting it as their work. The link is http://cakebysalsaalaina.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-sitting-spongebob-cake.html
    It angers me to see bakers engage in this deceptive activity.
    Thanks again for sharing.

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  62. Oh my gosh. Thank you for letting me know. It looks like she has my entire blog on copied onto hers. Very strange! This is the second time this week something like this has happened. Geez.

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  63. I love this cake and will be making one just like this in the next 3 weeks. Do you know how many this serves?? I'm having about 35ppl at the party and hope it will be enough.

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  64. Can this cake be done with 8 inch square pans and buttercream with only fondant accents (eyes, etc)?

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  65. Hi my name is Shay and thank you for posting this I â„“♥√ع it my 2 year old is gonna freak when I make this my questions is do you think that MMF will work great with this cake and also with the ribbon cutter what were the inches you used and once again wonderful job your a great mom for that one ! Oh one more thing I have a phobia with carving lmaooo any advice on how to carve the shape and did you use a serrated knife ?

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  66. thanks for the step by step explanation my daugther wants a spongebob cake for her 4th birthday this going to help me alot

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  67. Thanks for posting. Hope, with enough guts, I can make one for my friend's son's 7th birthday!

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  68. Thanks a ton it has been a very good guide, now to make a sitting spongebob cake is definitely easy utilizing your recommendation. Thanks

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  69. Hi Michelle, Thankyou very much for this step by step tutorial. My sister ask me to make a spongebob cake for my nephews' 18th and since i have never made anything like it before i was quite worried that i couldn't make one but your tutorial was fantastic and it turned out great it wasn't perfect but he was so pleased with his cake that he immediately took a picture on his phone and put it on facebook, i couldn't have done it without you, it has gave me so much more confidence in myself :)

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  70. Very greatful for your step by step directions I will be using them to create my five year olds bday cake its beautifully donE

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  71. How many 10" cakes did u bake? Did you put card board between half of cake? i am attempting to do this cake this weekend-BEST SPONGEBOB CAKE I HAVE SEEN!! AWESOME JOB:)

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  72. Joy, I just saw your question. Very sorry!! I baked two 10" squares (then torted them). Yes, I put a cardboard between the cake, it is on top of the straws. Thank you for the nice comments!

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  73. do you have a recipe for the fudge & mint chip buttercream you used, my daughter loves mint.
    Thanks

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  74. How lOng can fondant be refrigerated and can I make the decoration a day early ?

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    1. Fondant can be refrigerated as long as you need. Yes, you can make the decoration a day early. I always decorate the day before. :)

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  75. this cakes so beautiful i just want to lick it everywhere.

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  76. Hi! This cake is great. When you said you put cardboard in the cake, did you do it between the bottom and top half? I've never done that before, does it help with stability? Also, does it interfere with the dowel in the middle?

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    Replies
    1. Hi! There is a top and bottom section of this cake. I use a cardboard under each section. The bottom section needs dowels to support the top section. The middle dowel should be sharpened so that it will go thru the cardboards and down into the cake drum.

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  77. hey what kinda icing did you use and do i make icing like that??

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  78. Hi Cake Fixation,

    Can you please share you Fudge & Mint Chip Buttercream. My 5 year old son loves Fudge and mint flavoured food. Chocoholic at the age of 5 lol.

    If you want you can email it to me at dante290208@gmail.com.

    Thanks
    Sonya

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