3D
Against the Grain
by Clanci Ferguson @Clunki · submitted Aug 9, 2011 · 2011 contest
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Description
I have loved this design for since I voted for it on Threadless...I may have a slight owl obsession!! As soon as I started thinking of how to make it into a cake the thought of yule logs came to the fore...but a vertical one instead. I also decided early on that I wanted the owls more edible and so instead of making them fully out of fondant I wanted to make whisky truffles and use them as the body with fondant wings, head etc.
Going along with the tree theme the only possible cake was a black forest cake. Saturday was baking day. I found a great cake recipe with the cherries in the cake which would mean my layers didn't have the huge gap between them they would have if I layered the cherries there. I made one batch of cake mix and baked six mini cakes using two cake tins through the day. While they were baking I was able to use my mum's whisky truffles, replacing whiskey with Kahlua, and rolled them in chocolate sprinkles and coconut.
Sunday was all about the designing. I began with layering my cakes with a brush of cherry brandy and lashings of vanilla cream between each layer. To ensure the cakes would stay together while icing etc. I used wood skewers through the layers. The next step was using an ice cream scoop to make some holes on the cake stack which my owls would sit in. I then covered the cake with a layer of milk chocolate ganache followed by a dark chocolate ganache. I didn't try to make it too smooth and also didn't cover the top with the dark chocolate as I wanted to give it that cut wood look. When the ganache had set I used a fork and a cake skewer to score it to give it that wood grain look. With that the base cake was complete.
With the design picture next to me, I then used fondant to make the owl heads and outer feathers. I used a knife to prick the surface to texturize it. When my owls were complete I used toothpicks to hold them together and to hold them to the cake.
I love the end result....even though the owls are more obvious than the original design they are cute enough to pull it off. The cake itself was dismantled on Monday at work and was ultra-decadent with the dense moist chocolate cake, cherries, cream and two layers of chocolate ganache...the owl’s whisky truffle bodies finished off the sugar high!!
Going along with the tree theme the only possible cake was a black forest cake. Saturday was baking day. I found a great cake recipe with the cherries in the cake which would mean my layers didn't have the huge gap between them they would have if I layered the cherries there. I made one batch of cake mix and baked six mini cakes using two cake tins through the day. While they were baking I was able to use my mum's whisky truffles, replacing whiskey with Kahlua, and rolled them in chocolate sprinkles and coconut.
Sunday was all about the designing. I began with layering my cakes with a brush of cherry brandy and lashings of vanilla cream between each layer. To ensure the cakes would stay together while icing etc. I used wood skewers through the layers. The next step was using an ice cream scoop to make some holes on the cake stack which my owls would sit in. I then covered the cake with a layer of milk chocolate ganache followed by a dark chocolate ganache. I didn't try to make it too smooth and also didn't cover the top with the dark chocolate as I wanted to give it that cut wood look. When the ganache had set I used a fork and a cake skewer to score it to give it that wood grain look. With that the base cake was complete.
With the design picture next to me, I then used fondant to make the owl heads and outer feathers. I used a knife to prick the surface to texturize it. When my owls were complete I used toothpicks to hold them together and to hold them to the cake.
I love the end result....even though the owls are more obvious than the original design they are cute enough to pull it off. The cake itself was dismantled on Monday at work and was ultra-decadent with the dense moist chocolate cake, cherries, cream and two layers of chocolate ganache...the owl’s whisky truffle bodies finished off the sugar high!!
