Birthday Cake for the Hubby!

Every time my husband's birthday would come around, I would call the bakeries in the area in search of royal icing covered cake (like we use in St. Lucia). I made those calls when we lived in Louisiana and also when we lived in Texas. However, I soon learned that butter cream was the norm here in the US. I promised that I would learn to make my own cakes so that I can get exactly what I wanted. I am yet to make the perfect 'royal icing covered cake' but recently I made him a cake using the new techniques that I have learned. Maybe one day I'll tell you about the less successful attempts at making home made cakes, lol, including that time when the royal icing was so soft and the cake was so hot that I ended up with a 'hot chocolate-icing' mess. Anyways, we'll leave the stories for another time :)

This year's cake was covered with fondant. Fondant can be described as a sugary dough used to cover cakes. It is usually reserved for wedding cakes but it is particularly popular with bakers who like to specially craft/decorate their cakes to match the occasion. The texture and smoothness of the fondant allows a decorator to use the cake as a canvas. So this is my new art!

Soccer Ball Cake for the Biggest Arsenal Fan

The Wilton Embosser Tool was used to create the stitching on the cake. 

Closer Look!

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache filling

For this soccer themed cake, I used white fondant; the fondant can be bought ready-made. I also dyed some of the white fondant with red icing color to emulate the 'Arsenal' soccer ball design. As you can see, the color was closer to pink rather than red, so next time I will also buy the red fondant rather than trying to color it myself. The tutorial that I used to make this cake, was very thorough and easy to follow. The audio is not in English but you can still learn by watching. Also, I had to order the pentagon and the hexagon cookie cutter shapes from www.cheapcookiecutters.com.

I'll make a special effort to provide detailed notes and progress pictures next time I try this cake. Give me a nudge or leave a comment if you want me to make this cake again soon!