Making a dragon cake

This project was soooo much fun.  4 evenings, 3 sheet cakes, 3 batches of marshmallow fondant, 2 batches of white chocolate buttercream and an extra pair of hands (my sister) to construct and finish the cake.

The dragon cake under construction

I think I gained 5 lbs. while carving the cake because I would eat all the pieces.  I hate wasting good cake!  Here are the recipes I used as a guide:

• Whipping cream cake
• White Almond Sour Cream Cake
• White chocolate buttercream
• Marshmallow fondant

Jeff's birthday dragon cake

 My sister helped paint the monster.  I think that was the most enjoyable part – watching it come alive with color!  You should’ve seen me carry this cake to my car by myself… not recommended.

more on choco banana

The cake baked well, just took a little longer.  Here is what I used for the filling:

• Peanut Butter Buttercream (Wilton’s recipe)
• Chocolate Ganache  – I added banana extract

I choose to make a more stiff ganache by allowing it to cool a little longer after melting the chocolate but still at a spreadable consistency.  Then, I spread the ganache on one layer and as it thined out it hardened slightly.  Which is great because the peanut butter buttercream had a softer consistency than the regular buttercream recipe I’ve tried.  I think it was because of the peanut butter.  I thought of adding more sugar but I didn’t want it to taste too sweet.  Not sure if that’s relevant, though.  Anywho, the PB cream went on top of the ganache and in between all 3 layers of the cake.

Chocolate Ganache

Peanut Butter Buttercream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end result was a success.  I brought some to work and my co-workers loved it.  I might try adding more mashed banana.  Also, I really think ripe bananas are the key.  You know, the kind that are so mushy and brown/black on the outside.  They’re still good just not pretty to look at.  Overall, the combo was a success.  It kind of reminded me of a Reese’s peanut butter cup but in a cake and with some bananas.

In the making of a chocolate banana cake

Right now I’m waiting for my Chocolate Banana Cake to bake.  I’m making it for my friend, Neelam’s birthday.  Actually, her bday is on Valentine’s day but we’re celebrating 2 days earlier.  So I figured that I’ll bake the cake tonight, freeze it and decorate it tomorrow.  I’m using a 6×3 round baking pan (I wish they marked these things!) and I’m kind of worried about the cake baking all the way through because of the depth.  Well, let’s see what happens!

My third fondant cake

Well, I did the Chanel Cambon tote in black & white for the baby shower.  Except I left out a few things because I spent some time helping cater the event as well.  I didn’t have time to add the black corner detail like that on the original (at least from what I’ve seen in pics).  Also, I never had a chance to play around with gumpaste to make baby items that would accompany the wanna-be diaper bag.  I did make the cake board to make it more baby friendly. 

I had so much fun using the embosser tool for the quilted effect.  I rolled the tool in white luster than rolled it over the fondant.  I attempted to dye the chocolate fondant that I had prepared the night before with black icing gel but then opted to just paint the pieces.  I didn’t let it dry all the way so some of it got on the cake board but nothing too drastic. 

For the cake, I used this chocolate WASC recipe from cakecentral.com. The one I used is made from scratch.  There are some that use boxed cake mix also.  I have to say I was pleased with the moistness of the cake but for some reason not so impressed by the taste.  I’ll try it out again though, maybe add some other ingrediants or try a different filling. 

Oh yes, one last thing, I made orange buttercream.  Yummy!  I’m in love with this flavor buttercream.  I used Wilton’s recipe for plain buttercream and added orange extract and grated orange peel.  Try it, you’ll love it, too!  And that was my experience with another fondant cake.