We celebrated Grandpa's birthday last Wednesday. I never seem to know what cakes to make for men. For children, there are plenty of cartoon characters or cute animals to choose from while flowers are pretty safe for women. A cake itself is so feminine, in my opinion. I think if men could have it their way, they'd prefer a birthday burger or birthday steak or something! :)
Anyway, after some thought, I decided to go with the classic bow cake, but with more 'manly' colours. I went with a square so that it would look more like a wrapped gift.
The cake consists of two 8" square American chocolate cakes. I leveled and torted the cakes and filled them with a mint flavoured fresh cream. I also crumb coated the whole cake with the mint cream before applying the fondant. The chocolate cake and the delicately minty and light fresh cream went very well together indeed. I might try this combination for cupcakes someday.
The chocolate fondant was made by using store bought fondant and adding plenty of good quality cocoa powder. I just kept kneading in more and more cocoa until it reached the right shade of brown. (It was quite a fair bit of cocoa powder!) When the fondant became too dry from the addition of the cocoa, I added a few drops of brown colouring. It turned out pretty yummy! Definitely nicer than ordinary plain fondant. It was like chewy chocolate candy!! :) Didn't I tell you chocolate makes everything yummier??!!
Anyway, the cocoa powder did not affect the texture of the fondant much. It was still very pliable and soft and I covered the square cake very easily, even though squares are so much more scarier than rounds!
I made the bow pieces from gumpaste around a week ahead so that they would have time to dry hard. Then I assembled everything on the day of the birthday dinner itself.
I think this classic bow cake is simple and impressive at the same time. It's not too hard to assemble, so I just might do some more of these in different colours in the future!
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