Ombre ruffles

I have just finished a cake for my Brother in law's birthday.  I like to do one for his birthday as it falls right where my life becomes MY life again   :)  I know I haven't posted in quite a while, I have been busy rearing calves everyday since then last week of July.  Calving takes over my life for a period before easing up and not being quite as busy.  We now also have 4 lambs and a pet calf.  I'm hoping my naughty dog wont eat any this year.

Anyhow, on to the cake. It is a chocolate cake (the cake recipe is from Annabel Langbein) with whipped ganache filling and mistakenly also on the outside. Oooops. For some idiotic reason (i'm blaming both calves and baby brain) I didn't think about how soft whipped ganache would be.  Laying the fondant was awful.  It has come out alright in the end though I feel.

Because of the disgusting laying of fondant I thought I would try out the ombre ruffle trend that is probably just about over knowing me.  It was relatively easy, altthough like any new thing it takes time.  The cake took me pretty much all day but this is, of course, in between feeding animals and children and husband and of course just general dealing with a baby who is cranky with teeth.  I'm pleased with the variance between the shades as i prefer ones that are gradual compared to the quite stark shade changes.  I thought I would handpaint his initial onto the cake which was nearly as untidy as I thought it would end up being.  There is also a fantasy flower which was hand cut and modelled (although I did use my veining tool for veining the petals, oh and scissors for the centre detailing) I'm not that enthusiastic about the flower.  It could be better but it could also be worse.  I did very much enjoy putting glitter on the stamens though.  It's all about the little things.

While typing this out I have been trying to get the photos to upload to photobucket.  And having a terrible time.  As we are rural (and in nz) our internet is rather awful.  I have had 6 attempts at uploading three photos and I have been averaging a upload speed of, wait for it,


5 whole KB per second.  That's right 5 kilobytes.


I think I will just hook my phone up to the computer and do it that way.

Oh and yes I did realise part way through my ruffles that the colour is so very vintage cabbage patch dolls.  Does it seem that way to any of you as well.  Never mind.

Oh and I soaked the cake itself in a boysenberry syrup and whipped some very well drained boysenberries through the ganache, although I might soak cakes in the syrup again I dont think I will add the berries to the ganache as I didn't think that enough berry flavour came through.

Now to go fetch my phone cord....

Done, I am using my phone because DSLR is having a battery issue :(

See you next time!