This weekend, one of was my biggest challenges as a cake decorator was on my plate. It was a four tiered, white fondant covered, and required piped royal icing designs that were different on each tier!
Some problems that come with working with white fondant . . . it picks up EVERYTHING and everything can be seen on it! Good thing that was Paul’s department ;). With white, there is NO forgiveness when it comes to covering the cake and what is underneath . . . if your fondant is rolled out too thinly, the whole world can see what’s underneath (of course the whole world is looking at my cake). But, the great thing about working with an all white cake, is that when it’s finished, it is stunning!
When planning out this cake, the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I realized how much work it was going to be.
In order to assemble the cake, we built a 14″ round plywood base, that had a support beam screwed into the bottom, with which the cakes would stack onto. This, of course, was Paul’s brilliant idea, as I would have been working with my piddly little dowels I’m sure . . . still fighting with them . . . a day after the cake was due. Thank goodness for him.
Each tier was to be 6″ high (that makes a very TALL cake . . . 24″ . . . who says you never use your times tables?), and to make it even more difficult, each tier was a different flavour of cake, filled with a different filling, and covered with a different buttercream.
The 6″ top tier was a banana cake, filled with chocolate ganache and covered in peanut butter icing. It was then covered in white fondant, and the monogram “W” and vertical dots were piped with white royal icing.
The 8″ second tier was a Guinness chocolate cake, filled with a Whiskey chocolate ganache, and covered with Bailey’s buttercream. It was then covered in white fondant, and I piped triple layered scrolls.
The 10″ third tier was a champagne cake, filled with strawberries and covered with champagne buttercream. It was then covered in white fondant and vertical lines were piped.
The 12″ forth tier was a styrofoam cake dummy, and while we were transporting it, we were sure glad the rest of the cake was on the fake bottom layer! It made it studier than it would have been if the bottom had been made of cake.
Drooling yet? I hope not over the styrofoam layer 😉
I piped the scrolling work by using a template I found, and basically, traced it with a toothpick to sketch the design. Then I moved onto tip number 9, and piped the first layer, then, piped over top of it with tip 4, then lastly tip 2. Each layer added dimension to the design and gave it look very regal I think.
The travelling part of this cake’s journey was quite nerve racking! Every bump, jostle, and pot hole was torture! I had my handy-dandy cake fixing kit, but I really, really, really didn’t want to have to do any emergency repairs. And . . . thankfully, my driver got me to the event in one piece . . . as was the cake.
Joy, oh joy . . . safe!
