To be married to the same person for 35 years is quite an accomplishment these days. And definitely something that should be celebrated! What better way to celebrate than with a cake?! Or two, as was the case with the Ryburns' anniversary party. Aaron (a co-worker of mine) asked me to make a couple of cakes, with the only requirement being "Chocolate".
Chocolate, you say? Be careful what you wish for!
I created two coordinating cakes. I'd been wanting to try a new "drip" technique that I had seen, so I started the planning process from there. I made a two-layer devil's food cake, with chocolate buttercream icing. I accented the top edges with chocolate rosettes and the bottom edges with chocolate stars.
To create the "35", I used half-inch foam core, an Xacto knife, and number printouts I created in Adobe Illustrator, to create molds into which I could pour melted milk chocolate. Once the chocolate hardened, I removed it from the molds and added the numbers to the center of the cake.
The second cake was created to correspond with the first, and also featured rosettes, stars, and a dripped edging.
I love how whimsical the dripped icing looks, and I hope to use this technique again in the future. Not bad for a first attempt, eh? ;)