Another challenge awaited me on these cakes as it was my first attempt at gum paste. The gum paste was fun to work with once I got a hang of it and how I was to make dogwood flowers out of the sugary stuff. I ended up making my own cookie cutter once again out of a lasagna pan and then pressed the cut out flowers onto a textured bowl I had to make it look more realistic. To dry, I placed the flowers on a sheet of tin foil and crumpled it up so that the flowers didn't dry flat but had some body to them. To finish off, I dusted the dried flowers with petal dust and 'glued' a ball of gum paste rolled in yellow sugar in the center with water. The branch was made with cocoa fondant by twisting two fondant pieces into a rope and wrapping around the cake. The lacy design on the cake was made using a small circle icing tip and buttercream.
The groom's cake was an indulgent chocolate cake with a chocolate raspberry ganache filling. My gum paste skills were put to the test as I studied pictures of westie dogs in order to sculpt the canine to place on top of the cake. I used a tooth pick to make 'fur' and then rolled out teeny tiny ropes for the face to add a little more detail on the snout and around the eyes. Edible markers colored in the eyes and added a little pink to the ears! Here's to Duncan the Westie who was not able to attend the reception but was represented in sugary form :)
