And now, with the power of marzipan, I can.
I have always liked the look of a cake decorated with fondant, and have been looking for a good reason to try my hand at this level of cake decorating for a while now, so while it was raining outside all throughout Memorial Day weekend, I was inside baking.
A friend of ours recently had a combination birthday/new business office open house and I wanted to make a cake for the occasion. I knew that I wanted to attempt a fondant-style decorated cake, but, frankly, fondant sucks from a flavor standpoint. Marzipan is the way to go because it handles essentially the same as fondant, and tastes only about a million times better as it is traditionally made with almonds and almond extract. Marzipan is supposed to be dipped in chocolate and eaten like candy, fondant is just for show, so it is really a no-brainer.
The open house was on Thursday, so I wanted to practice making the marzipan beforehand just in case things went awry. While making the "practice marzipan", Mary asked if I could make something for her coworkers as they had to work on Memorial Day, so my "practice marzipan" turned into an entire "practice cake". A "two-layer, devils food with marionberry filing practice cake".
It turned out awesome, and got rave reviews from Mary's coworkers, except for the one guy who didn't think to check for toothpicks before eating.
The second cake for the combo birthday/office open house was essentially indentical underneath the hood, just a different paint job:
The logo was based on the business logo...
...and was successfully delivered despite an uncooperating rainstorm to the happily surprised birthday recipient:
All the baking pros on YouTube make draping and shaping marzipan around a cake look easy. Shams and lies. Guess I'll just have to keep practicing on more cakes..
Now I just need to find some 50 gallon drums of almond extract, and you'll never hear from me again.
--Isaac
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