Winter Wonderland

Winter has come early to my kitchen. I had the opportunity this week to make a cake for a bridal shower. The theme of the wedding is Winter Wonderland and the colors are red and silver. The bride likes chocolate ... which is also my favorite ... so to the kitchen I went.

I started off by trying a new chocolate cake recipe. This recipe was fabulous! I ended up with so much extra cake ... but that's not really a bad thing. Since there weren't going to be very many people at the shower, we decided to go with an 8 inch square. I have done brushed embroidery with flowers, but thought it would also look cool with snowflakes. Therefore, even though I've only done brushed embroidery on buttercream, I thought it would look nicer on red fondant. I've been reading that many decorators only put fondant over ganache ... they say you get straighter and crisper edges then when covering buttercream. So ... I made the chocolate cake, the dark chocolate ganache, the marshmallow fondant, and some buttercream for the snowflakes and writing. It's a good thing I started early because this small cake took all week.

As I was saying ... I started off by making the cake. After it cooled I leveled it and torted it.

Then I filled it with dark chocolate ganache.

Next, I covered the entire cake with ganache. In the picture above you can see the cake board that the cake is sitting on. In the picture below you can't. Thats how much ganache is on this cake.

After spending the night in the refrigerator, it was time to decorate the cake. I'm more of a buttercream girl, so covering a cake in fondant tends to take a lot longer than it should. It took me THREE tries to cover that cake. I kept tearing the fondant. I was getting ready to color my white buttercream red and cover it in that when I decided to give it one last try. IT WORKED!!!! YAY ME!!!!

And they're right ... I did get crisper edges by covering the cake with ganache first. :)

Next came the fun part ... piping.

I used the brushed embroidery technique for the snowflakes. The technique goes like this ... I piped the outline of the snowflake. Then, with a small flat brush dipped in water, I brushed part of the piped buttercream into the center of the snowflake. I worked my way around each snowflake until I had a pretty brushed look. It's important to remember to only pipe one design at a time. If the icing hardens or crusts, then it won't brush. Some people use royal icing for their brushed embroidery, but as I said ... I'm a buttercream girl. While the icing was still wet, I sprinkled some silver edible glitter in each snowflake to give them a little shimmer. Finally, I piped in the couple's names.

The best part of this cake is the taste. After I leveled it, I took some of the cake top, smeared ganache on it, and ate it. I felt like I needed a cup of coffee after eating one bite. It was A M A Z I N G. AND ... I have another 8 inch square in the freezer. I may have to get it out for Sunday dinner dessert. :)