Dove Baptism Cake

A friend of mine helped me come up with the idea for this cake. Because it was for a baptism, but I didn't want to make a design too similar to the last baptism cake I made. So, the idea is to make it more universal than the last baptism cake. We came up with doves. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Ghost as well as a symbol of peace. The spiritual peace that we feel when we do the will of God.

 I modelled the dove topper out of modelling chocolate made with white candy melts mixed with glucose syrup. I chose modelling chocolate because it sets up hard, but doesn't become brittle like gum paste.

I started out with a rough pear shape. A dove's neck is about the same thickness as its head. Then I pinched the end into a tail. 

 Then I pinched a beak into existence. And I started thinking about the wings. I thought about them for a while before I made them. I knew I would need some pretty sturdy supports if I were to make them open, so I decided not to. But I also didn't want the wings to be down, because that's boring. I decided to make them as if the bird had just landed on the cake with the wings down, but not all the way. As if the bird were in the process of folding its wings in.

 I used my circle cutters to cut the wings. The smooth edge to cut the top of the wings.

 And the scalloped edge to cut the bottom edge.

 Then I gently massaged the front of the wings into the bird.

 I used a small circle cutter to support the head and refrigerated it for about 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to set up. After that, the dove was quite stable.

 The cake was three layers of chocolate chip cake, filled and covered with vanilla American buttercream. The doves on the side of the cake, I wanted to be in an ombre from medium to very light gray. So, I started with medium gray and used three sizes of dove cutters to cover the cake. I started with the largest one and placed a row of doves around the bottom of the cake with one wing on the cake board.

 Then I used the smallest sized doves and just filled in the gaps between the first row of doves.

 Then I mixed my gray with an equal amount of white fondant to make a lighter gray and cut out more of the larger doves and made another row.

 The small doves covered most of the gaps.

 Then, the next level of lighter gray. I cut out large doves from this color and laid another row with one wing on the top of the cake.

 Then a lighter gray again and made the first round on the top of the cake, laying the tail onto the wing of the dove behind it.

 I put a round of medium doves near the edge of the cake.

 Then a round of medium doves around the top.

 I used the medium doves to cover the rest of the top.

 Then I placed the dove topper onto the middle of the cake and gently dusted it with silver luster dust as well as the top of the cake.

 Lastly, I painted two black eyes onto the dove topper and the beak gray. Finally, I used black in my fondant press mold to make the name of the person getting baptized as well as the date of the baptism. I laid them on the cake board.

 I really love how this cake turned out. The doves gave the cake a lovely texture. The ombre really worked.

 I loved the topper and was able to give it to the man getting baptized.

 Congratulations on the baptism!

 To watch the whole process on our YouTube channel, click here: https://youtu.be/S5I14DKt-Qk
Um das ganze Prozess auf YouTube anzuschauen, hier klicken: https://youtu.be/AF-BdV0MYcA