Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Falling

Autumnal Family Tree birthday cake

Usually, the design aspect of my cakes requires much more thought and planning than the actual cake itself. But this autumn inspired birthday cake was the opposite, mainly because there were three parameters which I had to follow. Any milk product used must be cooked; it must be eggless; it needed to travel a distance without refrigeration.


There were very few alternatives without the almighty egg and the exclusion of whipping cream ruled out any mousse, which would not travel well anyways. Luckily, this cake was for a family of chocoholics, which allowed me to combine an eggless chocolate cake (made with soft tofu) with a whipped dark chocolate ganache (cream is scalded first).


I was given one word as thematic inspiration, family, and this immediately led me to think about a family tree and then, autumn leaves. The scroll work and tree were crafted from milk chocolate modelling paste and the leaves were rolled fondant. Everything was brushed with gold dust. After finishing the cake, I had a brief panic attack when I realized I had used MILK chocolate modelling paste (for colour contrast against the dark chocolate ganache glaze) but concluded that milk chocolate contains milk powder and milk must be heated in order to pasteurize and evaporate into milk powder. Phew!

24 comments:

Chocolate Shavings said...

That cake is absolutely beautiful

Leslie said...

Stunning cake!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Such a beautiful cake! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is such a beautiful cake! :)

Janice said...

Such a beautiful cake!

Melissa said...

Wow, what a stunning cake!

Steph (desserts for breakfast) said...

This cake is so pretty! I love the detail in the knot in the tree trunk, too.

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

I love, love, love this cake... seriously, love everything about it!!! Excellent job!

:)
ButterYum

Anonymous said...

What an outstanding cake! Wonderful idea with decorating!!!

rlbates said...

Absolutely beautiful!

chocolate and whine said...

That's incredible. Nice job.

Ljiljana said...

Beautiful, I love it.

Kana said...

Beautiful!!!

Jabulani said...

Such a striking cake; it's lovely. I think I may borrow this idea in the future, if you don't mind. I like the idea of doing one with little pictures of the family as leaves.

Spryte said...

Your cake is GORGEOUS!

Fahrenheit 350° said...

Oh my heavens! This is beautiful!

fairy_mi said...

I just have one word to say...
WOW!
This cake is absolutly stunning!
The deciration is so beautiful and creative...
you are absolutly gifted! wtg

Tia said...

i love the rustic elegance and simplicity. awesome.

bridget {bake at 350} said...

That is just gorgeous!

Namtan said...

i found your blog by chance and i just want to say:
i want to learn how to do that too!!
thats SO beautiful!

Anonymous said...

You are very talented. I have never seen such beautiful cakes!

Ashton Lee said...

I would KILL to have this as a birthday cake!! I LOVE trees. Its the hippie in me. But BEAUTIFUL.

Chocolate Corporate Gifts said...

This cake looks so great.
Charmaine, two thumbs up for a job well done and your creativeness was definitely a skill that I wish I could be.

Thanks...

Lydia Bakes said...

I love this cake so much it is amazing! My friend asked me to make this for her Dad's 60th, I tried my best but it looks nowhere near as good as yours!
Will definitely link back to you on my blog!