Making cakes to fit the theme

A few weeks ago my critique group decided to have a dinner celebration in conjunction with our weekly meeting and I offered to make something cakish (as I almost always do when the opportunity arises). Since my friend Tristi had recently released her book Secret Sisters, and I hadn't been able to make anything for the actual launch party, I themed my cake around her book.

This was the first time I had made a ganache instead of using buttercream frosting, so it was a learning process for me on how it handles. I was really pleased with my ability to smooth and adjust the ganache to get straight edges. I was also thrilled because this is the first cake I've ever covered with fondant and had no troubels at all with the fondant buckling at the bottom instead of creating a smooth surface. I didn't have to do a border because the bottom looked perfect (and now I'm sure I'll never be so lucky again!)

Okay, so an explanation of the cake: I couldn't find a single theme in the book that I dared attempt on my tight schedule (for a carved or shaped cake), so I just picked the most obvious ones for decoration instead. In the above picture you see the can of baby formula, and a hand-knit sock in garish colors.

The top of the cake has the card the visiting teachers hand out with their names and addresses, along with the cute little flower magnet it was attached to (the flower in the book hid a camera--because these sisters are sneaky!) Oh, and a black sports car played a significant role in the book. I know, it probably should have been a two-door. I realized that after it was all finished and on the cake.

And this is the front of the cake with the name of her book piped in the font they used on her book cover-or a pretty close facsimile (she recognized it was supposed to be the font, so that's a good thing, right?). I had never used food writing markers before--they're totally food safe but I didn't have time to experiment writing on fondant with them for the baby formula can and card on the top.

Next time I'll practice a bit before trying it on the cake decorations. It was a fun cake to make, and the ganache made it absolutely fabulous tasting (as if a chocolate cake needed any help!).

Fabulous chocolate ganache recipe

I'd never used ganache before, though I'd heard people talk about how wonderful it is. On my favorite cake forum, Cakecentral.com, I'd read posts where people said that they now use ganache under all of their fondant cakes instead of buttercream because it is so much easier to work with. Trying something new I'd never even tasted, though, was a bit scary, until I looked at a recipe, look how simple it is!

Chocolate ganache
3 lbs finely chopped, semi-sweet chocolate
3-1/2 C heavy whipping cream

Slowly bring the whipping cream to a boil, then pour into a bowl containing your chocolate and stir until smooth. The cake needs to chill for a couple of hours after you put the ganache on it so it can set up nice and hard before you start putting on fondant. A warm spatula will help smooth out the rough edges. If you like a thicker ganache, use more chocolate, if you like yours thinner, use less. This makes enough for 2-8" round double-layer cakes, but it keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge, so if you have another cake coming up, put it in an air-tight container and refrigerate. It will stay good on the counter in an air-tight container for 3 days.

I used semi-sweet chips, which worked beautifully on my chocolate cake but chips don't melt as well as finely chopped blocks of chocolate (because of size, not melt-ability), so be aware of that. I know my sister says she uses blocks of chocolate and usually uses at least half unsweetened. The beauty of this recipe is that you could use just about any flavor of chips you'd like, or use white chocolate and candy flavoring to complement the cake flavor.

When I used this ganache for the first time, I actually torted both of my 8" circles, so there was ganache between each 1" layer of cake--which is a lot, so you could easily skip the torting all together. Also, I had frozen my cakes before putting the ganache on them, which helped the ganache to solidify much quicker so I could layer a little extra where the sides weren't exactly straight. You'll want to get the surface as perfect as possible before refrigerating because fondant shows every little bump beneath the surface, and only so much fixing can be done with the warm spatula later.

Have fun!