Our office recently hosted a wedding shower for my colleague Liz and her fiancé Enrique, who are expert tango dancers. After talking it over with the party organizers, I planned on making a tango-themed red, white, and black cake with multi-colored ruffles. But then I happened to receive an order of Martellato Sugar Dress and silicone lace mats three days before the shower. I gave lace making a try and it turned out to be incredibly easy (watch this video if you want to see how it's done). So I switched up the cake design to make lace the central feature. It actually turned out to be a much easier design to execute -- all it required was a few pieces of lace, bead borders that I made with silicone molds, some cut out letters, and a single fondant flower.
The cake was larger than necessary (the bottom tier was 10 inches in diameter and the top tier was 7 inches across), but the scale and visual impact of the cake was impressive. And I'm super psyched about using cake lace for future projects. Its gives you so much drama for so little effort, and you can make it ahead of time.
I wanted the inside of the cake to carry on the color scheme, so both tiers were four layers of red velvet cake. Normally I pair red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, but I wanted this cake to be stable at room temperature and not require refrigeration, so I used mousseline instead.
I love baking for a special occasion. And it was a honor to be able to help celebrate an amazing couple!
Recipes: "Red Velvet Cake" from Cake Man Raven, recipe available here; "Mousseline Buttercream" and "Classic Rolled Fondant" from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.
Recipes: "Red Velvet Cake" from Cake Man Raven, recipe available here; "Mousseline Buttercream" and "Classic Rolled Fondant" from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.
Comments