Cake in the disguise of a Snapper

Since the last post was a pig shaped cake, I wanted to share this other carved cake I had a blast making. It is not a birthday cake... but this was for one of my closest friend's wedding. People often refer to the wedding cake as the bride's cake so a groom can get his own cake usually during the wedding or at the rehearsal dinner. These cakes are usually a novelty cake, something fun that represents the groom. Our groom, Alex, does not eat fish. He does however have steak as often as three times a week. The initial thought for the groom's cake was a cake shaped as a piece of steak (think Peter Luger's with a chunk of bone in the middle). But a piece of brown meat didn't seem as interesting to make. During the bachlorette party one of our friend's recommended I do a fish! It was brilliant. A little sick in terms that Alex hates any seafood but if I had filled the cake with oreos, Alex's favorite cookies, all would be forgiven. I chose to replicate a red snapper because I didn't want to do any old boring silver fish. Thus three layers of red velvet cake was filled with oreo buttercream then carved and got a final coat of chocolate ganache because I really like to use ganache during the summer time for its sturdiness. After covering the cake with white fondant I made impressions of the scale using a round cutter. Then I painted on pearl iridescent powder mixed with lemon extract and highlighted the top and bottom of the flat laying fish with pinkish pearl coloring. After explaining to the dinner guests at the rehearsal dinner on why I chose to do a fish cake for the groom, everyone had a good laugh. So for those who plan to create a cake that is fun and meaningful for that special person, take some time and think about an occasion for a memorable event that reminds you of them. Then I am sure you will come up with a great idea for a cake that is meaningful yet fun for everyone to enjoy.

Roasted Pig Cake

A proper luau deserves a whole roasted pig. But on the rooftop of my rented apartment in New York City, I think it's illegal to dig a pit or have a grill big enough to do a DIY roasted pig. My solution, a birthday cake imitating a perfectly roasted miniature pig. Inez, the birthday girl, was turning 28 and we agreed that it would be one of our last birthdays where we could celebrate like children. There were inflatable palm tree, parrot pinata, flamingo straws, hula skirts, hibiscus ornaments and leis for everyone. And in the center of the festivity, the pig cake was dressed in a edible lei made just for him. (I will call this cake a him because it's more boy-like than a girl.) He was my first carved cake. This means that I made a basic pattern for the cake and stacked them up after filling each layer with chocolate ganache in this case and carved it with a knife. Then I covered the whole pig with chocolate ganache and covered that with rolled fondant. To achieve a look of a perfect roast, I used airbrushing to give a slight sheen and variation of color to emphasize the areas where a roasted pig will be cooked more (tips of ears, nose and top part of the body). My tip for carving a cake to make it real is to exaggerate the slopes and curves of the shape you are carving the cake into. But only carve little at a time and chill the cake completely before attempting to carve. Since this birthday party took place in the middle of summer, I used ganache as a filling because I find it to be much sturdier than buttercream. And the chocolate filling seemed to be a good match for the banana cake. I'm hoping that this cake was an addition that made the Luau birthday more festive and special eventhough there was no whole hog to munch on.