Cake for a star

This is the first time that I ever made a fondant cake for my husband. At first he was a little bit confused why I would make a cake for him. I figured he was not big on cakes but I wanted to make him a cake since I make cakes for other people as well.

The cake was a little bit of a challenge even if it was only a single tier since the topper needed so much detail in it. My hubby is a "big kid", meaning he loves playing game consoles and other stuff a kid would normally enjoy too. And since he is a big fan of Star Wars, I knew it would be the best theme for his cake.

The Design

But this cake was a replica of a Star Wars cake on Flickr , it seemed perfect for me since Obi Wan Kenobi was my husband's favorite character. Although I decided to copy the design, I made some alterations. The position of the topper was altered since I wanted to Obi Wan to flaunt his light saber ( sword ). I also omitted the stars since it will take me a lot of work. I wanted the design to be simple, I had to be practical with my time since I had to do a lot of things aside from making this cake. I got my cake topper how-to's from Debbie Brown's Book, her book really helped me with my last two cakes - figure making wise.

The Cake

There's two recipe that I have been dying to try out in my cakes for sometime now, its a chocolate cake recipe and chocolate ganache. For me, making a chocolate cake from scratch always seemed like a lot of work. But I was corrected when I made this cake -my first chocolate cake ( from scratch ). One thing that I know my husband love is chocolate, and he's more chocoholic than I am. So I thought chocolate cake frosted in butter cream and ganache would be a perfect base for his cake. Ganache is a very nice frosting and it is true that you cannot help but sample it once you're making it, Kate Sullivan wrote that on her book. I am not a real big fan of chocolate but for me ganache is simply heaven. It is a very good medium to crumb coat your cake, frosting cake with it leaves a very nice shiny finish. And if you let it stand and allow it to thicken it creates a sturdy base for fondant which is perfect. And even without the fondant, your cake will look and taste good. I just had to cover mine since we would be travelling and the fondant will keep my cake in place until we reach our destination for hubby's party.

My Discoveries

One challenge that I always have with MMF aka Marshmallow fondant is coloring it. But for tinting the MMF blue for this cake I added generous amounts of the coloring to the melted marshmallow until I got my desired hue prior to adding the powdered sugar. Mix the color fast by using wooden toothpicks.And viola! I have blue MMF. I figured that the white powdered sugar will just blend in.To add more depth with your color once you've covered your cake, just rub small amounts shortening on your cake. Tinting fondant is such a pain for me, finally a solution!

Another Cake Project?

That will be for my son's 3rd birthday, and guess what he decided for the theme? Star Wars! I would say he is a big fan of his dad but not purely Star Wars so he likes what his dad likes. No choice...I will have to make another one, but perhaps another design or character.I really had fun making my husband's cake, I was once again challenged.