Whiskey Bottle Cake - with and without alcohol

This cake was as a farewell cake for my (former) boss. He was the one who hired me in my current job and, while not a huge fan of cake and sweets, he can talk passionately on the subject of whiskey. I just couldn't think of anything more fitting. I had to make him a whiskey cake.

The cake itself was Caribbean Rum Cake with the rum replaced with whiskey. The non-alcoholic version was made with water and rum flavoring.

I also made a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream.

 I took about two cups of it and added a few tablespoons of whiskey to it.

 I had baked the cake in bread pans. I leveled them and placed them on a cake board.

 I started out carving into a round bottle form.

 I carved the non-alcoholic cake into a bottle shape.

 Then I carved the alcoholic cake into a different bottle form.

 I was pretty happy with them at this point.

 Then I crumb coated the cakes. The left one with regular buttercream and the right one with whiskey buttercream.

 Then I frosted them again.

 Then I rolled out some marzipan to cover the cakes with. My boss had mentioned that he didn't like the taste of fondant, but liked marzipan.

 I covered both of the bottles with white marzipan.

 Then I mixed up some food coloring with food-grade alcohol. I tested it on a paper towel to make sure I got the color right. I mixed ivory with red food coloring to get this color.

I painted the alcoholic cake with the reddish edible paint. I chose that color, because I'm pretending it's a bottle of Bowmore Darkest, which is a reddish color. I skipped the shape of the label. But painting accurately with food coloring isn't the easiest thing to do, so I stuck to just the words on the label. Bowmore Darkest and Carsten, which is my boss's name.

The second bottom was painted on with ivory food coloring and is supposed to be a Talisker Whiskey bottle. But, although I don't think Talisker makes an alcohol free version, I knew I needed to label this one as being the cake without alcohol. So I labeled as without alcohol.

 I was fairly happy with them so far, but the bottles need lids.

 So, I rolled out some black fondant really thin and laid it over the tips of the necks of the bottles and cut them to size.

 I think this is a fitting farewell for my whiskey-loving boss. Wishing him all the best in his future and in his new position.

Watch us make this cake on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/yYlKRn_8_E0
Schaut zu wie wir diese Torte auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/vWq_Cu7iBlo