My marketing manager, aka my husband, suggested that I add another “pro bono” cake to this weeks’ agenda to help stir business. :)
It would be America; the cake - Part 2. I didn’t know how I would out-do the original, but planning to bake on Wednesday and decorate on Thursday, I figured I could churn it out along with the other cake I was doing that week.
This cake was going swimmingly until I went to make the ganache. I like really thick frosting-like ganache, but that was not what I was ending up with. It was your typical drippy shiny ganache - not what I wanted, not what would give the cake the structure I needed. I tried freezing it, but it was already after 11 and I wanted to go to bed. Finally, I decided to make layered frosting because I’d already put ganache on half the cake and it wasn’t thickening the way I hoped it would. So I mixed some of the ganache with buttercream and end ended up with a lovely chocolate buttercream to help hold the cake together and add a subtle buttercream flavor.
The next 2 hours were spent painstakingly rolling and cutting fondant into an American flag. I spent half the time telling Tim I didn't think it would meet a high enough standard to be a marketing piece, but IT DID! It did and I am so happy!
