For every birthday of my girls I take on a project that eventually makes me sweat. When I started making children’s cakes the themes were meadow or ladybug. Later on I said my offspring can pick their own theme. Last year the pick was “cake with healts” which was easy but this year Lily’s taste is more refines. Or maybe it’s the consequence of her being a fan of cake making shows. Once she was watching a video looking as innocent as ever and there she saw it – a giant rose cake. That was it, the decision was made. And what wouldn’t I do for my kids, right?
First I did some research. I watched and read a few tutorials, made notes and tried to incorporate my own experience. As a base cake I chose the yogurt sponge cake with strawberry cream because Lily likes all things strawberry. The petals would be made from modelling chocolate and the whole flower would stand on a pedestal that would be covered in what should look like a white canvas. At the last moment I decided to decorate the cake with some dew drops.
Is it not completely easy to make this cake, however, you don’t need to be a professional (after all I am only an amateur enthusiast).
Before we start let me tell you something about the tools. You won’t need any special and expensive one but it’s worth investing into the following:
- Adjustable cake mold
– it will save you lots of manipulation during which you might damage the cake. If you don’t want an adjustable mold, get at least the one with the removable side, for example this one. - I recommend you to get at least two bowls that you are comfortable working with, like these.
- Another helpful thing is this turning platform, you will need to turn the cake constantly when decorating it.
- To work with the chocolate I really really recommend you to get a silicone mat and a silicone roll. I lost my mat a day before making the cake and rolling the chocolate on a wooden one was a hell.
- There’s nothing better to mix the chocolate with than a silicone/rubber spatula
- Cake needle isn’t a necessity but it will make your work easier.
You will also need:
- Modelling chocolate – here is the recipe. You will need 1200 g of the color of the rose and 200 g of the color of the leaves.
- 2 vanilla cakes with strawberry cream, the recipe is here. If you have two different molds it looks nice to make the pedestal cake rather shorter and wider and the base cake for the rose taller and thinner.
- 250 g of extra strawberry cream, the recipe is the same like for the cake
- about 100 g of white fondant to cover the pedestal
- 1 package of gelatin powder
- sharp knife
- round cookie cutter in 3 sizes
Let me give you a tip for working on the petals from modelling chocolate – especially the biggest ones. If they don’t maintain the shape you want, first shape them with your fingers, then place them on a plate and into the fridge for 30 seconds. After you take them out, place them immediately on the cake. On a hot day choose a cool working space.
The cake has to be very cold, leave it in the fridge over night before decorating it.
HOW TO MAKE IT:
Start with the base cake for the rose. Take the round cutter and mark a circle in the center of the cake. As you can see my cake didn’t turn out perfect, there are a lot of cracks. However, this is not a problem for this project.
Start cutting the edges of the top part of the cake to bevel it. Try to make it a bit round towards the very edge.
This is what the result of the first cutting should look like.
Turn the cake upside down, again mark the circle in the center and bevel the top.
The result
Turn the cake upside up again and try to fix everything that isn’t smooth. You can also cut the very side of the cake.
Smear the whole cake with the cream, let it set for a while, turn the cake upside down and smear the remaining part. The whole cake should be smeared.
Now comes the fun part – making the petals. Roll some modelling chocolate about 4 mm thick.
With the smallest round cutter cut out a circle and cut it so that one part is slightly bigger than a half.
Take this bigger part and roll it and put it in the center of the cake like shown in the picture.
Cut out another circle and cut it in two in about two thirds. Take the bigger part and wrap it around the first petal.
Cut out another circle and just cut off a small piece at the bottom. When you wrap this one around the previous petals, you can open the petal a little.
Now make more petals in the same manner but using the other round cutters with bigger diameter. Keep adding petals on the cake.
When you’ve done 3 rows of petals (can be more or less, it depends on the number of different size cutters you have), continue cutting the petals out with a knife. Cut out a half circle, give it some shape with your fingers – you can squeeze the edges between your fingers a little to make them thinner – and keep on adding bigger and bigger petals onto the cake.
From 4th row start folding the petals a bit towards the outside to make it look like the rose is opening.
Last row left.
In the last row make the petals like the one you see in the picture above. The last petals should be really big and you’ll probably need to use the fridge trick mentioned above.
This is what the cake should look like after you’ve made and attached all the petals.
As for the pedestal cake, roll out the white fondant and cover the cake – just let it “fall” on the cake to make it look like canvas. Cut off any edges that don’t look good. Put the rose on the pedestal.
Form some leaves from the green chocolate and attach them to the rose. You can put them in the fridge to make them keep the desired shape.
The dew drops are the last step. Make the gelatin following the instructions on the package. Put drops of it on the petals, leaves and the pedestal. I used a syringe but you can use for example a wooden stick. Attention! Make the dew drops right before serving the cake, don’t put the cake with the drops in the fridge! They will become slushy.
That’s it, it wasn’t so difficult, was it? Here are some details to enjoy:
