After Eight Clock Cake
This cake began as a discussion with a friend about how much I love peppermint. I told her about the chocolate peppermint Christmas cake I made last year and how delicious it was. Then she told me that her mother's favorite candy is After Eight. And she asked if I could make an After Eight Cake for her mother's birthday. Later, the request to make a clock face on it. No more specific requests. After looking at probably a million photos of ornate clocks, I finally decided that I wanted the look of an old-fashioned porcelain clock with lots of gold and some colorful flowers. To make the peppermint buttercream, I made one recipe of my Swiss meringue buttercream, minus the vanilla flavoring, and included a tablespoon of peppermint flavoring. Then I added two drops of blue food coloring and five drops of green food coloring gel to get that minty color. Then I stacked my cake on the cake board with chocolate cake, peppermint buttercream, and I put some After Eights inside the...