Quilt Cake

My most recent cake was the finalized version of the quilt. I don't have as much photo documentation of that process - as I only just decided to start this blog. Oh well.

Anyway. Party for my Mom was on Saturday.

Wednesday:

I made two batches of M.M. fondant (I only used the prescribed 1/2 Crisco per batch this time - stickier in the initial kneading, but the overall texture in the end was soo much better and easier to work with).

I also made 1 1/2 batches of this fantastic (I do mean fantastic) White Chocolate Butter Cream frosting. I used Ghiridelli white baking chocolate, and I really think that added to the richness.

In both of these frosting recipes, I added some almond extract - because the final cake would be chocolate cherry - I figured the almond would add a nice hint of cherry flavour.

Thursday:

I baked the Dark Chocolate Cake in heart shaped silicon pans. I was worried they'd warp, but they didn't - my worst problem was that the cake stuck in the end - even though the pans were silicon and sprayed with Pam. Dangit.



I also started to play with the fondant colours, practicing marbling and texturing techniques and such. To help me, my friends Chris and Brandy came over to play, and learn what this cake decorating was all about we had fun.


After leveling the chocolate cake, I had some leftover pieces, and so, we made a cake with our play fondant.

Friday:

I spent the first few hours kneading colours and trying as hard as i could to match the colours from the original quilt. This took a really really long time - so many different colours - and not to mention my daughter at my feet and, you know, needing me to interact with her every once in a while :)

After the fabrics were made it was just a matter of cutting and assembling again - this time though, I had a square fondant cutter, thank god. So my shapes weren't wonky, and everything was much more uniform. That, and cutting took so much less time...

Assembling the pieces was a far more tedious job this time, however. I decided that I would lay out a large piece of fondant, rolled as thin as usable - and then lay each piece on it, after wetting the bottom and edges slightly, so that it would stick. So each piece had to be layed out precisely - since once a wet piece of fondant touched other fondant, it usually stuck pretty good and would make a big 'ol mess to repair.

Many hours later.. all of this was done. So I layered the cake with frosting and cherry pie filling - and then lightly frosted it all over. I painstakingly picked up my quilt and layed it down on top of the cake. After that it was all a matter of forming, prodding, and pinching the fondant to fit the cake. Sadly, I again over-judged how much butter cream to use - so there was some oozing - not only that, but the cherry filling caused some havoc as it squished it's way out in some places.

After I was happy with the lay of the fondant, I pulled out my little texture wheel thing and quilted the cake!

To my delight, my mom recognized it immediately as her quilt.