Orchid Plant Cake

This weekend brought forth a new challenge when Eumi asked me to make a special cake for her mom's 50th birthday.  Of course I would! How could I ever turn her down?  The details entailed bright colors, flowers, and fruit.  I spent most of the day combing over different ideas, and the idea of making a normal round cake with flowers piped or attached to it just seemed boring.  Naturally, the concept of gum paste flowers popped into my head.  I got very excited, and then I got scared very quickly.  I have never made gum paste flowers before, nor any that looked realistic.  Boy, this was going to be interesting.

The design of the cake was based around the idea of  a beautiful flower, and after checking with Eumi, her mom's fave orchid.  I sketched the concept of the cake on paper and worked out the details of the cake.  The cake would make up the pot, and would be the base to a single blooming orchid plant.  Layers of yellow butter cake flavored with creme bouquet were nestled between layers of fruit cocktail mix and pastry creme.  Stacked 6 layers high, the cake was covered with buttercream to seal in the freshness.  I then rolled out a wide strip of dark chocolate fondant to wrap around the cake for the pot, and followed by a strip of Japanese decorative paper for a beautiful accent.

 

The highlight of the cake sits a a little over foot high, and was created a day in advance to insure drying time.  Using three different gum paste cutters,  I cut out the 3 parts of each orchid.  I rolled, ruffled, and veined each part with different gum paste tools.  Petal dust was lightly blushed on with a small detail brush to create a soft, natural color.  Each piece was then dried in flower cups to create a natural curve.  A little help from floral tape made this lovely plant come alive.  The assembled orchid plant was then inserted into the center of the cake, and into a bed of crumbled chocolate pie crust...or what I call dirt.  :)

Hope her mom loves it!