Box of Tissues Farewell Cake

November 24, 2019

This cake was for a colleague of mine who decided to change jobs. As a farewell to him, I made this cake.

All of us colleagues got together and bought him a gift card as a farewell gift and we wanted to give it to him inside the cake. So, I put my thinking cap on and tried to think of a design which would lend itself to something like this.

First, I wrapped the gift card in plastic wrap.

Then I rolled out some gum paste really thin.

And wrapped it around the gift card and over some dowels and allowed to to dry. I wanted it to look like a sheet of tissue paper.

Ironically, I had some banana cake already baked and ready to go, but it was round. But to make a box of tissues, it doesn't really lend itself well.

So, I carved the cake into a more rectangular form, with the sides more trapezoidal.

I filled the cake with a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache. My colleague isn't a huge fan of sweet, so I decided to use chocolate ganache instead of buttercream to keep the sweetness down. But, I was concerned the chocolate would overpower the banana cake, so I tried to keep the amount down to a minimum.

Then I frosted the cake in chocolate ganache.

I cute a slit into the top of the cake.

Then I covered the cake in white fondant.

I smoothed it down and cut off the excess fondant.

I cut a slit in the fondant right where the slit in the cake is.

Then I cut out some different words for good-bye out of black fondant.

And I glued them onto the side of the cake with edible glue.

And, of course, my colleague's name.

Then I made an edible ivory paint with ivory food coloring and clear alcohol.

I also painted on another word for good-bye with black food coloring as well as the words Bitte Nehmen (please take) next to the slit in the tissue box.

Here you can see what the tissue looks like half out, so you can still see the gift card.

I eventually got the tissue into the box and it looked like this. The card is still sticking out slightly. Enough that it can be grasped and pulled out without a problem.