Happy Solstice!

I've been having awful luck with cakes lately.......and apparently I've been having awful timing with posting on this blog.




In my defense, a lot of the time that I spent away from the computer was because I've been moving around a lot. The awesome job that I had in Ft. Lauderdale became not so awesome anymore and I made the decision to leave early and return to a life that was not so depressing and lonely. Is it sad that the only real thing I loved about the job was that I got paid enough to indulge my cake obsession? Anyway, I digress.



So I moved down to Miami for a little, then I moved to Tampa, where I'm currently crashing with my friend as the resident homeless bum. So now that I've clarified where I am geographically, let's get to it.

When I make a cake, because I'm still practicing, I like to try stuff out whenever I make a cake for someone, so for a Christmas cake I decided to do for a party, I wanted to attempt modeling with modeling chocolate. I have never made modelling chocolate, nor have I ever modeled anything, but hey that's are experiments for right

I decided I wanted to do some kind of winter wonderland cake because it's generic enough for a holiday shindig in America....it practically screams Happy Solstice!
And a quck text to the host: "Penguins or Snowmen?" confirmed the obvious....that penguins ALWAYS beat snowmen. So I looked at cake central and came up with a couple design ideas. I loved the idea of an igloo, but I couldn't imagine taking a hunk of fondant like that and just wasting it (I am unemployed now you know).

So The cake I made was Double chocolate with oreo buttercream. I made three layers and I baked the extra batter in small Pyrex mixing bowls to see if an igloo shapedcake would appear from one of them. I made my own fondant again and it was like the best I've ever made it so yay me, practicng is working.  Theres a reason they let the contenders on Food network challenges bring their cakes filled already. The one joy of my life though at that point was how fabulous the igloo came out. It just popped out perfectly dome shaped and ready to be covered. I was in love with it.
Anyway so I covered it in ice blue fondant which took me far too long to colour and got cracking on some modelling chocolate. PS Modelling chocolate is ridiculously easy to make....why didnt anyone tell me??? it is like 100 times awesomer than fondant to make and eat. After a long night of modelling, I managed to churn out this scene:

Its still one of my favourite cakes though. It makes me feel all snowy and Christmassy when I see it. The sad part is, I never made it to the party. My car, Kit, decided it was just a little too Christmasy and couldn't take the wicked cold we have been getting in FL.



Sigh.....



at least this one didnt crash in my backseat in a thump of glory.