A Spotted Cake

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I am by no means a traditional cake maker. I like the excitment of making a character cake much more than the presice business of flowers and figurines. This is probably just an excuse because I actually can’t make flowers or figurines, but I can make a good cake. A character cake means one that is suited to the colours or interests of the recipient and hopefully involves a bit of their wacky life or humour. I was very pleased to be asked to make a cake for my Aunty who was having a surprise birthday.

My Aunt is both wacky and colourful, so a character cake was going to be fun. I asked my cousin to send 3 recent pictures that might give me some ideas to help me along with a design for the cake.  She sent me a picture of Lexy the black and white spotted dog. A picture of my aunt in spotted and stripped clothing and another of her feeding her dog Lexy, in her favourite dog bowl. Can you see where the theme came from?

As you get older it becomes so very much more important to connect with your roots. We used to see our family all the time. Each family member had their own birthday celebration and Father and Mothers days were a time that we got together . We are all too busy for family in this new world where the internet is God. We’ve all moved further apart and every weekend is taken up with ferrying kids to sports.They probably desperately need those outdoor activities for the simple reason that they might turn into pumpkins and roll out the door, after spending so much worshipping time on the internet. We feel like we are in each others lives beause we have facebook or maybe it is because of facebook that we can stay in touch. We are a family that would love to see more of each other but each meeting has to be organised months in advance. How sad is that?.  This big party was keenly anticipated and we got to see distant realtives and catch up with each other. Any excuse for a cake. Oh what the hell am I saying?  There needs to be no excuse for cake, but decorating a spotted cake requires an occasion.

Here it is and the recipes I used are attached. The vanilla cake is a cracker and comes from I am Baker. The chocolate cake is an old favourite that works perfectly for this kind of cake. Both are moist and not too heavy. They work with buttercream so very beautifully. Here’s how I decorated the cake board for more impact.

This cake is made from 2 recipes of chocolate cake coloured with black food colouring. Then two recipes of Vanilla cake. (minus the colouring). Use this recipe for vanilla buttercream. I used 5 kg of roll out icing for this design.

Love you Aunty Michelle. 

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