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.