Gift Box Birthday Cake. Lemon Chiffon Cake filled with Lemon Curd Buttercream and covered with Vanilla Marshmallow Fondant and topped with a sugarpaste Magnolia Blossom.

Happy Sunday! This week's cake was a gift to a special friend so it was a special joy to spend the time I did making it look like a gift wrapped box. Lemon Chiffon seems to be a favorite of my clients. I, personally, think it's less about the cake and more about the lemon curd buttercream filling! This slightly tart filling sets off the sweet lemon cake perfectly. A combo that's worth the extra effort in order to create. Coloring fondant can be a tricky bit of work. Gel food colors are added to the fondant a teeny bit at time until the right color is achieved. However when it comes to bright colors or dark colors this becomes a more tricky proposition. Food coloring does have a taste to it and since you have to add a lot of it to get some of the bright or dark colors you have to be careful not to disturb the taste too much. Otherwise you end up with a pretty covering that doesn't taste good. And, for good reason, a lot of fondant already has the bad reputation of not tasting good. Fortunately, fresh marshmallow fondant tastes wonderful and with a little flavoring manipulation it still tastes great even when it's been colored! With a layered fondant design such as this one, that is one important detail. I always want my cake to taste at least as good as it looks so taste is a very important detail to me.

If you've been reading this blog then you know this flower has been in progress for about a month now. Working on the individual petals as well as the handpainting and drying times in order to make it look like the real deal takes time. Mainly it's drying time. The petals dry fairly quickly but each layer has to be glued together and fully dry before adding the next layer and that takes about a week with each layer. If you were to glue all the petals together at once the center of your flower would be very wet and soft which would not support the petals. They would fold over and break, not stand up and look the way the real petals do. So it takes time and patience but the end result is always worth it. The more time you take to make it look real the more it does look real and creates the perfect topper for the cake. The fact that the person of honor gets this as a keepsake is a bonus. These pieces last for forever so they can, indeed, be saved as decoration after the event.

This upcoming week just brings a cupcake order but those are always fun. It's a challenge to come up with something pretty and creative for such a small "canvas".

See you next week!

Cat