Finally...There's Cake!

It seems like forever since I made a cake! But I finally got to make one this week for my sister's birthday! Her birthday is on Cinco De Mayo, but I didn't use that as a theme. I had seen the cutest purse cake on Cake Central and wanted to give it a try, TRY being the main word! It didn't come out as cute as the original, but it wasn't too horrible either. Take a look...

My sister has always loved giraffes or anything that looks like one. So, when I saw this cake made by Cake Central member mrsmudrash, I knew it would be perfect for her! I made her favorite cake, German chocolate with coconut pecan filling, which I now know is not the easiest thing to carve. Then I frosted with ganache and finally covered in fondant, with chocolate fondant for the spots. This was also the first time I made this type of ganache, and it was amazing...both in taste and to work with !

Now, I had tried to make the gumpaste bow and handle super bright red, but it never got bright enough, kind of orange-y. But as I was looking through my cake supplies I saw the red sprinkles and thought, "That just might work!" For these, I just used water and a paintbrush to "paint" the entire handle and the top part of the bow. Then I laid them in a pile of sprinkles that I had dumped on a plate. And shook off the excess. Pretty simple, but cute and sparkly! And what girl doesn't love sparkly?!

And so, I applied them to the cake board too! After I covered my board, I spread a thin layer of piping gel onto the board with my small offset spatula. Then, over a larger plate, I poured the sprinkles on and let the excess fall off. I love how it turned out and I will be doing it more in the future!

Thanks for looking! Enjoy! I know we did!