Amelie's mermaid

Last month, we celebrated three birthdays together, my two nieces (sisters) , Amelia and Amanda, have the same birth date, and another nephew's (Ethan) was pretty close. Since I did not have the time to make 3 cakes, I just made one for them to share. Amelie, being the youngest, got to choose the theme. She initially wanted something princess-y, like Cinderella, but that would not have been very suitable for Ethan right? so we went with the Little Mermaid and an undersea theme instead.

This is made up of two 6" round chocolate cakes and covered in fondant. The cupcakes are chocolate as well, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. All the figures are made of gumpaste. Next time I should mold the torso and arms from a single piece of gumpaste, so I won't get those unsightly joins on the shoulders...

This is the first time I tried using a harder ganache to cover the cake before applying fondant. This ganache method is what I learned from Planet Cake's book. Planet Cake is located in Australia, so the climate is more similar to ours, and thus their methods are more relevant to us. I have found that using buttercream, fresh cream and light ganaches is impossible in our awfully hot and humid weather! I am so happy that I found Planet Cake's book and thus the solution to my melting/ slipping fondant problem!

A harder ganache (higher chocolate to cream ratio) is not only able to withstand higher temperatures, it also acts like a putty, filling in all the holes and dents in a cake to give it a gorgeous smooth finish! "Alleluia!" is all I can say...