Creative Cake Day

I have been commissioned to make a cake for a bridal shower this weekend. Cake decorating is my passion in the kitchen; I almost can’t wait to get through the baking and assembly so I can play with decorations!

I’ve always enjoyed making representational cakes and thought this would be a great opportunity to make a wedding dress cake. Right now I’m taking a break from putting the finishing touches on the cake to write this. Sometimes it’s prudent to step away from whatever art you are creating, take a breath, and consider it with a clear head. I was about to put way to many sparkles on it and said to myself “Sonia, put down the petal dust and step away from the cake.”

I used Elisa Strauss’ recipe for chocolate cake from her book, Confetti Cakes. If you haven’t seen her work, go to her website and check it out. The cake has two surprises in it: sour cream and coffee. Interestingly enough, both flavors work well to bring out the flavor of the chocolate. I then filled the cakes with vanilla buttercream (also Strauss’ recipe) and set them to chill in the freezer while I rolled out the fondant.

I have a love hate relationship with rolled fondant. On a good day, it sets on the cake like a dream, creating a smooth matte finish on which to embellish with decorations. On a bad day, it’s sticky, stretchy, and full of air bubbles. Today was somewhere in between. Slightly sticky but pretty easy to work with, I had just enough to cover and decorate two 8-inch round cakes (about 3 pounds).

Fondant tip: grease your work surface with a vegetable based shortening like Crisco. It prevents the fondant from sticking and keeps it from drying out while you work with it.

I had a vauge idea of what I was going for with this design, but wanted to wing it on the details. Sometimes this creative process works for me, and other times it’s just chaotic. But today I was in the zone and it came out just as I imagined it would in my mind.

I decorated the cake with all edible elements: rolled fondant, glitter, dredges, and sprinkles. The finishing touch is a whisper of silver and white luster dist to highlight the accents. Unfortunately, the camera didn’t pick up on the subtleties, but trust me it sparkles!

This was an enjoyable way to spend the day. I hope she likes it!