American Baker in Germany

This cake was one with a history. I made a dragon cake for this same friend's birthday the year before. So, let's begin with the one I had made before. The dragon was made of rice krispie treats and the cake was a ten-inch round chocolate cake filled with rainbow Swiss meringue buttercream. I was pretty happy with it. Although this was in my pure blogging days, so I don't have any video footage of it. My friend loved the cake. She said it was delicious. It was just what she wanted... there was just a bit too much of it. She would have preferred something smaller. Hence, this year, I chose to make the dragon out of cake and skip the castle altogether. I started out with two layers of 7-inch vegan chocolate cake and a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream.  I carved a general spiral into the cake.  Then I hollowed out the spiral and created one pointed end.  Then I began shaping it into a more organic looking shape using both layers stacked. I carved the sha

I've decided to break down how to make sugar flowers one flower at a time. I'll start with the best ones I make. A fondant rose. They're really not nearly as hard to make as you think. I'll show you a few different ways.  Forgive the unnatural color. I needed something that would show up on camera well. I started out with a band rose. It's pretty easy. All you do is cut a strip out of fondant and roll it up along one side and turn down the top line.  Another variation is to ruffle one side of the ribbon before rolling it together to make it look just a bit more realistic.  Check out how cute these look. Now, granted, these are not meant to look realistic. They are meant to look kind of cartoon-y and really easy to make.  But we can up our game. So, to make a more realistic-looking rose, you cut out a bunch of circles out of fondant and flatten the edges with the pads of your fingers to make it less perfect. Then make a small cone of fondant and wrap t