The Apple Cake

Good day cakers!  I hope you are having a great summer:)!!

This Summer has been particularly extra nice because I took a break from my grad school studies to take an international trip with my family:-D!

Upon our quick return it was time to work on this REALLY fun Apple Logo cake.  These kind of 3D cakes are SOOO fun!!

Here are some behind the scenes pic of the Apple Logo cake.  This cake was a chocolate gluten-free cake.  And, although regular cake can be tricky to trim, gluten-free can be slightly trickier because it is usually a lot more 'crumbly'.

Regardless of the cake ensure to chill the cake to make it firmer before trimming it.  As soon as you bring the cake out to room temperature make sure to work quickly!  As the cake comes to room temperature it will become more and more difficult to trim and maintain sharp lines.  As soon as you are done with the trimming (and filling) give it a coat of buttercream (you could use ganache as well, however, ganache could be a little more difficult to make smooth when dealing with odd shapes so just a warning for fondant use:)).

So about the leaf... it's not cake!!  The leaf is made of ganache and filled with creme brulee.  It was essentially a large piece of filled chocolate candy!:-D.  And how exactly was this accomplished?  So a lot of trial and error went on with this little piece, however, this was inevitably how it happened:

1.  I 'sculpted' a slightly smaller leaf piece out of a 6" cake (it is slightly smaller to make room for the chocolate).  

2.  Next I covered the entire little piece of 'leaf' cake VERY gently and seamlessly with a piece of plastic wrap.  Once wrapped I put it in the freezer for at least a couple of hours.

3.  Next I placed the little leaf cake on a right sized leaf cardboard and very carefully covered it with ganache on both sides (using the little cardboard as a guide).  With the sides covered in chocolate (but not the top) I placed it in the fridge for about an hour.

4.  Finally, I brought the ganache leaf out (which was now hard chocolate), pulled out the little piece of plastic covered cake (which was now soft cake) and vuala!  A chocolate shell!!  I filled it with creme brulee to the top and covered it gently with ganache.  

5.  After the final detailed ganache shaping it was ready to cover in fondant:-D!

Off to another summer project!

Thanks for reading and 

Happy Cake Making!

Cake Couture Designer