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"Grand" Red Velvet Cake w/o Fondant Monday, October 05, 2015, 12:00 AM

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A friend asked me to make him a cake for his 50th birthday. His two requests were red velvet and no fondant... AGGHHH how to make a wonderful grand cake with no fondant? Research, obsess, more research, lots more obsessing! I had taken a class on Craftsy and wondered if I could do a crackle finish on ganache instead of fondant. Well, it worked wonderfully well though I did a 2:1 chocolate to cream ratio for the ganache and I think a 1.5 would have been better. This was a bit too firm, but using Callebaut chocolate was amazing (what a phenomenal taste... huge difference from the Ghirardelli I tried before). I had to be careful with the dabbing on corn syrup for texture as it did bring up the ganache if I was not gentle enough. I dabbed the corn syrup... a medium amount I would say, then brushed on the colors and kept playing with that till it felt right... then I loaded a brush with gold pearl dust and flicked it at the cake layer... voila, it was just the look I wanted.

First try at ganache on a cake, first try at modeling chocolate, first try at chocolate roses... everything gilded with a touch of the paint. Then last minute, while shopping for candles I saw this little mini chandelier at Target for $3. I had to buy it, rush home (an hour before I was leaving) and spray painted it gold. PERFECT finishing touch with gold candles to boot. The cake was a wonderful success. I was very proud of the result.