the cake we cut in half

vanilla cupcake cake with nutella filling
This cake for a Sex and the City themed bridal shower was inspired by a fairly famous and ridiculously expensive purse. Anthony used the giant cupcake pan to bake the cake, which made getting the right shape quite simple. The real problem came in recreating the tiny, metallic crystals that cover the actual purse.

We tried using sanding sugar first. It was impossible, though, to get the definition we needed to make our "crystals" look authentic.

Next up, piping tiny royal icing circles all over the cake---translate"pain in the ass." We finished half of one side and made an executive decision that it just wasn't going to look realistic enough. ARG.

I should add that at this point we had cut the cake in half.

IN HALF.

Why? Because it made adding sanding sugar or piping royal icing on it so much easier if the two halves of the cake were lying flat on sheet pans. Our next idea was to cover the cake in fondant, so we had to reassemble the two pieces. Anthony added a small amount of buttercream to each side, pressed them together and covered the miraculously resurrected cake in fondant.

But back to the crystal problem. After the cake was covered in fondant, we used a piping tip to press small circles into the cake to mimic the crystals. We then used luster dust to shade the cake and add details.


My next post will be from the Eternal City---Rome! In preparation, I have been working on two phrases in Italian that I intend to use every day:

"Un cappoccino, per favore!"

"Una coppa con due gusti, per favore!"