Happy Monday, sweet friends!
Have you noticed how cold it has gotten around here? With all the frozen concoctions popping up here every Friday, one might assume I'd lost my baking mojo. Not entirely true...
Although, it has felt that way some days. However, it's not for lack of ideas or desire, but time. It's the summer after all, and what better place to spend it than outdoors! After work and on the weekends.
So, while my cake mojo continues to elude us, I thought I'd share a couple projects from last year that I'd forgotten about, until a recent re-org of my image files.
I made this cake as a little thank you for a friend back in October, and for some unknown reason, never got around to sharing. Bizarre, because I thought it was the cutest little thing and remember being so proud of my hat. Even more bizarre, I could only find three shots, all pretty much identical...
The cake was chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling. I remember, because K and I ate the remaining mousse with our fingers straight from the bowl. I also remember baking half spheres in a silicone mold that just would not cooperate. That is how I achieved the shape at the top. I've since purchased better molds that work beautifully. You may have seen them in action here.
The hat and ribbon were crafted using modelling chocolate and I used a piping tip to cut out the polka dots on the hat band. To give the brim some movement, I used some scrunched up plastic wrap and propped them up randomly with popsicle sticks.
You can expect to see another version of this hat soon!
This cake, I chose not to share when I made it back in November, as I was not sure how I felt about it then...or now. It was a little chocolate cube with layers of coconut cream filling for my coconut-loving aunt.
I am not sure why I added fondant, or why I went bat-crazy with the poppy patchwork design, as she is not a fan of either. I'll blame my momentary lapse of design judgment on the alkaloids.
In the end, after all that work, I peeled away the fondant from the ganache it covered - a messy job, I might add - cleaned it up, added another coat of ganache to help smooth things out and piped a little coconut cream to pretty up any rough edges.
The end product wasn't as neat and pretty as its first incarnation, but still delicious. My aunt, who isn't much into dessert, loved it! 1 - because of the coconut flavour, 2 - it wasn't too sweet, and 3 - I made it! And in case you haven't noticed, I make all my cakes from scratch, infused with lots of love and laughter. 😉
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I'll be back in a few days with another instalment of my Friday Frozen Summer Sweets and more cake!
Regina @SpecialtyCakeCreations says
Awww...I am glad you are giving your 'forgotten cakes' some spotlight here. My family shares the same dislike for fondant. So now that I only make cakes for them I never really work with it anymore though I absolutely love the look of it. I really liked your patchwork poppies though
G Pavao says
I'm with Regina. I really like the patchwork poppies.
I Sugar Coat It! says
I am so not a fan of the taste fondant, but it provides such a clean look to designs and so versatile. Although, I don't mind it too much when I make it with marshmallows. Have you tried making marshmallow fondant?
I Sugar Coat It! says
Well, there you go - you just never know!! I am still on the fence about it...