Happy Halloween! Kendra and Alex's Stag and Doe Cake

We are currently in the 5 week period that I am calling the most busy time of my life (for now). You are getting this preamble because this is the first non-fondant cake in a long time, therefore a time saver. Actually, it was also pretty stress-free since I didn't have to yell at said fondant. University friend, Kendra, and her husband-elect held a stag and doe yesterday. They wanted a cake to go with their Halloween theme.

Bacardi Cake (Sheena's Cake for Robert)

Here is the first cake ever purchased. Ever. This also means that I was far too anxious and critical throughout the whole process (beware anyone who stepped into the kitchen Friday evening). Sheena wanted a Bacardi themed cake for her boyfriend Robert. Overall, it was a pretty simple theme. Execution was a little more difficult. The bottom tier was no issue; chocolate cake with butter cream icing. The upper tier was black forest and caused the majority of the issues. Cherry filling is slippery and difficult to build on and seemed to have declared me its sworn enemy. The cake might have been too moist too... but I still maintain that the cherry filling was being unnecessarily antagonistic. Lastly, do you know how hard it is to make red fondant? Two pots of fondant dye later, it was a hot pink mess. Thanks to the best boyfriend in the world for making two fondant dye runs & doing the mixing. He is the very best ever. Also, he braved my psychotic rants about everything.

I tried cutting out the Bacardi bat out of fondant, but that's obviously a ridiculous idea which failed miserably. Trying to cut detailed shapes out of fondant (and not letting them dry for upwards of a day or two) will generally result is a disfigured version of what you intended. I resorted to painting the bat with "no-taste" black fondant dye. If you mix the dye with a little bit of water, you can use it much like water colours. Overall, the painted-bat was a success. It's deformed fondant-cut brother is now smooshed in the compost. Serves him right!

Chocopocalyspe!

For Libra Birthday this year, the cake of choice was the CHOCOPOCALYPSE. My mother in common-law has a policy of chocolate, only chocolate. Don't even think about adding something to that chocolate and ruining it. This is well suited to my need to take things too far. Thusly, I am introducing the Chocopocalypse. Chocolate cake, Chocolate icing and brownies on top. The smell of it alone was amazing. The next project I am working on is the Chocopocalypse diffuser for the home. Amazing.

It was only a two layer cake since there were only 6 of us, but it still lives up to it's name.