I was almost tempted to start this post with a "gong hei fatt choi!". But, to save myself from being labelled as corny...... I shall keep my cake hole shut.
So over the weekend I delivered (my first cake delivery btw) a cake to a girl who's occupation is a futures trader. "Why are you telling me what she does for a living?", you might ask, well, it is paramount you knew that, because that was the whole point/idea for her cake. For the chinese out there, she ordered a "Mi Gang" or rice bucket cake.
Here's a picture of what she sent me. To the chinese, an OVERFLOWING rice bucket signifies an "abundance of wealth". In lay man terms, it just means you wanna be friggin rich. The more rice overflowing, the more moolah you have. So, for the client, who deals with loads of $$$ everyday, she wanted a rice bucket cake, that was exaggerating, traditionally campy, and GINORMOUS.
She had requested for the cake to be TALL, so tall I gave her. the cake was about 11" in height, and 10.5 " at its widest point. It was made up of 4 layers of chocolate mud cake, sandwiched between was oreos and cream filling and frosted with dark choc ganache.
To achieve its 11" and without having too much left over cake for client, I used 2 4" tall cylindrical styrofoam pieces to place below the actual cake.
I was hoping to get a flawless flushed look between the styrofoam and real cake, so I covered the whole cake including the dummy with a layer of fondant before adding on the final layer.
And then I started painting it, whilst using a tooth pick to score the fondant, to get a wood grained finish. As I was painting, I was dreaming of how nice it would be if I had an air brush. That would save me time, plus give my cakes a more realistic finish..... I wish, I wish.....
So after painting, I did the rest of the finishing touches, painted the nails with silver luster powder, the chinese characters and gold coins.
AND FINALLY...... The Rice Krispie Treats are placed on top of the bucket. Here I am sticking on the gold coins amongst the rice.
And, may i present, my largest cake ever........ The Rice Bucket Cake (damn, I gotta do better than come up with such a tacky name for my most memorable cake : /)
This is one cake I will remember for a long long time. It really made me push my boundaries and beyond, stretched my grey matter to its limits and most of all, it made me wanna get a bloody air brush. Danggit.
Next up, Chanel 2.55 version 2!
Nights! : )