What-A-Cake!!!

The birthday went really well. The cake was done a little bit a head of time, so that made things so much better. Here are some pics of the finished tree:

I made modeling chocolate out of chocolate chips and corn syrup, then molded it around a wire and wood frame I made earlier. The wood grain of the tree was made just by scraping a tooth pick in various patterns, and to make the 'bark' of the tree a bit deeper and glossy, I mixed some brown food dye paste and water and painted it on, add a hand ties noose, and then ta-duh I have a chocolate tree!!
On the trunk of the tree I carved "Z (heart) MOM" awww . . . .

It turned out really well. I had to make a base so the tree could stand so I found a piece of metal vent at home depot, some plastic tubing, and some epoxy.

As for the rest of the cake, well I made chocolate cake, and half of the cake with filled with chocolate mint mouse and the other half was a tart cherry filling.

The cakes were baked on a cookie sheet so they were a lot thinner than normal layer cakes, but that allowed me to make 4 layers and thus making the cake extra moist.

The cake was topped with plain vanilla whipped cream frosting (tinted to be grey, but later seemed to turn a weird purple-grey color). Tombstones were made from marshmallow fondant and later painted with black dye paste diluted with water (which also turned the same strange grey-purple color, at least it matched).

Dirt was made from finely ground chocolate graham crackers, brown sugar, and coco powder.

Blood was made from strawberry pie filling tinted darker with a bit of black dye and red dye.

Lastly, the bone (except for the whole body) were formed from fondant.

It was a lot of work, but the end product was really nice, and tasted amazing.

A Birthday Cake Graveyard?? Oh, no . . .

So I know it has been quite some time since I have written, or even made anything. I have been busy with the boys and homework, my work, and just trying to figure out where dinner is coming from . . . and yes, WoW also.

Well, September is upon us and it's time for Zack's 8th birthday. He actual birthday was on Monday. I sang to him when he woke up and we took him out to a restaurant of him choice, he even got a piece of cake with a candle in it. Then he wanted to go to the park. It actually was a really nice day, the weather was perfect and the food was good. Hooray for Zack!!!

We are throwing him a party/BBQ this Saturday at a cool local park. I am pretty excited, not to mention that it should be a great day, but we are meeting our friends for the first time, so that is exciting as well.

I asked Zack what kind of cake he wanted and he, being the blood-loving child that he is, wanted a bloody, creepy, death cake. Those are his words not mine. I know most parents are think "oh, my what are they teaching that kid" well, he like scary movies and gore, but I figure that his super strong love for cooking and doing housework pretty much evens out the other stuff, right??

As for the cake. I am going for a grave yard look, complete with blood, scary tree, noose, headstones, and a shallow grave. It is still a work in progress, but here is the noose. I made 2 cause I wasn't sure what size would look best.

I am also making a tree out of wire and modeling chocolate. The headstones will be made of fondant as will a few bones and some leaves. I also am gonna use cherry or strawberry pie filling for my fake blood, probably tinted a bit darker to get a good bloody look.

Check back soon cause I will post more pics as soon as I get the other stuff done, and if anyone has any creepy ideas I would love to hear them.