My First Cake Decorated With Fondant

An excuse to bake a cake- that's what I keep looking for (like a lot of folks out here, I now realize:-). My cousin's sister-in-law's daughter was to celebrate her 6th birthday. My cousin wondered if I would bake a cake for her. Wonder?? 'You bet , you bet, I sure will bake , hey thanks for giving me this chance to try out another cake experiment ' I gleefully told her. I kept on pestering her with my calls for the next few days- what was the little girl's fav color, fav theme, fav flavor etc etc. Oh, yeah, when a cake is on my mind, its on my mind 24/7.

Good natured cousin of course told me to bake whatever was easy and convenient. So I had all the freedom to bake anything. Freedom and fondant in my kitchen:-)) Fantastic!! You can hardly go wrong with a choc cake, be it adults or kids. Chocolate cake with ganache frosting with white fondant. Seemed good enough and a great opportunity to open that shining new packet of  white Wilton rolled fondant.

So I baked the cake using this  recipe. But of course I would not choose this one now for this kinda cake if I have to now. Yeah, blogging has opened my eyes to the so- much- more- fantastic sponges. I made the fondant flowers making 5 small balls, flattened them with my thumb and attached these to a small, flat, round piece of fondant, using cornflour paste. Would have been easier with cookie-cutters that size, but sadly I don't have this:-(. And the big flower in the middle was cut out with a cookie-cutter.

Put little small pieces of pink fondant in the middle of each flower (somebody tell me what this part is called!!). Black fondant for the eyes. Yeah, yeah, mixed colors for the pink and black of course. Can't let Wilton take all the credit guys:-)

Made some ganache ( I did not note down how much of cream and choc I used) which did not behave as I wanted to and turned grainy.. Grrrr.. !!  Another lesson learnt. Sliced and soaked the cake in simple sugar syrup, filled and frosted with grainy ganache. Popped the cake into the fridge. Did not put the fondant things on it as yet as I was not sure what would happen if it stayed on that surface for long.

The venue was a little far from my place and by the time I reached the place, the syrup was oozing out a bit out of the cake:-((. I made my grand entry to the party and hurriedly placed the flowers on the cake. Had carried my small amateurish choc flowers and put them around the cake in a feeble attempt to draw attention away from the syrup oozing at the bottom..

Placed pink candles on each flower. It looked pretty with the candles lit..

Well, all is well that ends well.. the cake was cut and demolished in a flash by folks at the party. Returned home with my empty cake carrier and a big smile on my face...
End of the story.. thanks for reading this guys!!

This cake is also my entry to Divya's Best Chocolate Cake Event . Boy!! Does she have a great collection of bakes and cakes on her blog!!