Fancy Cake Test

our test for this cake unit was to make a special occasion cake. the cake design and flavorings were up to us, but we had to draw the type of cake, filling, and covering. i drew chocolate genoise with buttercream and chocolate glaze.

so, i had to choose a theme that would look good on brown. i did a lot of research (because i'm a huge nerd) and a ton of sketches, but i finally decided to decorate my cake with an art nouveau-inspired peacock.



the peacock and his tail are made of marzipan that has been colored and painted. the other decorations on top were taken from an art nouveau building and piped in melted chocolate.

i like the top.


the sides were a little messier. chocolate glaze is tricky because if it is too hot it just runs off the cake, but if it is too cool it clumps up. mine's a little clumpy. i also piped a little on the sides.


there are marzipan peacock feathers around the sides, too. they were sort of inspired by a tiffany vase. i wish that i had had more time to work on them, but i just ran out. they would have looked better if i had painted brown under the edges like i did on the peacock tail on top. i'll know that next time.







i thought about my flavoring a lot, but i finally decided that since the outside was going to be dark and boring and grown up, that the inside should be, too.




it was a plain chocolate genoise that was soaked (and i mean soaked) with simple syrup with amaretto (a lot). there are two layers of strong coffee buttercream and one layer of chocolate buttercream made with unsweetened chocolate. (the buttercream is sweet anyway, so the net effect is sweetness.) there are ground almonds between the cake layers and buttercream. the idea was that it would be rich and decadent and you'd only need a little piece. of course i ate a ton of it anyway.