Z as in Zebra

During the month of June, I volunteered to make fancy cakes for the price of ingredients. While most people would be willing to eat a delicious, FREE cake, no one took me up on my offer more enthusiastically than Marcy. In fact, the subject line on her email read: “CAKE—IMPORTANT!!!” My favorite snippet from her email request read:

saw that you are looking for people to make cakes for…..and let me tell you something…..CAKE IS MY FAVORITE FOOD. seriously.

Naturally, it was impossible for me to say no to making this gal a cake. About six back-and-forth emails later, we had narrowed down her flavor choices to one (she’s not joking when she says cake’s her favorite food!). For her birthday, she decided that she would like a wedding-esque cake. I was happy to oblige.

I’d seen people incorporating wire and beads into their cake creations, and since I was going for a very unique, elegant look for Marcy’s cake, I decided to give it a whirl. I did my research and learned how to correctly use wire and prevent food-safety problems.

I called my friend Jacee to help with the beading, since she has both the skills and the tools. She did a great job and Marcy’s cake turned out AMAZING. It’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever made (if I do say so myself). And it was fun to make, too!

The two-tier cake was a flawless white cake with classic white buttercream icing. To imitate a ‘wedding look’, I decorated the surface of the cake as well as the borders with dots.

While I cut and bent the wires, Jacee created the pendants out of fishing line and different combinations of black and hot pink beads with silver accents.

The wires were threaded through a fondant ball and into a small bit of fondant which was anchored in the base of a floral pick. The floral pick was then inserted into the cake (that’s how I kept the wires from actually touching the cake itself). Fondant spheres then surrounded the floral pick for both aesthetics and structural support.

Marcy was really pleased with the cake. Perhaps, even shocked. She didn’t know exactly what she’d be getting, and I think the final result really surprised her. She was also really excited that there were plenty of leftovers.