I'm still cleaning up my files to get all the baked goods posted that I have actually been able to make in the last couple months. This one was a favorite for sure! My young cousin was turning 16 and I very much wanted to do something special for him. I've made a couple pretty nice cakes for his little sister (you can look at here at one of them) but had never had the opportunity to make one for him. But, being a guy, and a quiet one at that (not to mention that he's grown up with 4 older girl cousins and a little sister), I couldn't make some "sweet 16" style cake. He is a wonderful swimmer so I decided to do an understated blue, wave style ombre
on the outside so he wouldn't be too embarrassed and also so I could give him a true surprise later. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but it was a dark navy on the bottom with medium and then light blues and I left it rustic on purpose. I also had some dots on the very bottom as a base border. The names and numbers were cut out of fondant.
In order to get the effect I was looking for I made a separate vanilla sheet cake and cut out a ton of 1's and 6's with a cookie cutter. I mean like 50+ of each!
Once they were all cut out and laid on a parchment covered baking sheet I popped them into the freezer. I let them freeze solid before working with them. I made my chocolate cake batter like I normally would and then just put in a small amount into the bottom of one pan. Just enough to give the numbers something to stick to. I lined each number back to back starting with the 1's next to the edge of the pan and the 6's just next to those toward the inside. It was important to make sure each piece is tight together so it makes a solid row around the pan. I then filled in some more chocolate into the middle and put more batter into a pastry bag to squeeze into around the numbers. I made sure that the numbers were covered and it made a bit of a full pan by the time I was done. My fingers were so chocolate covered and sticky that I wasn't able to take many pictures in the middle of the process.
I had to trim off the top a little once it was cool and I was a little worried it would change the numbers but it did just fine.
When we pulled the cake out of the box, lit the candles and did all the embarrassing singing I think everyone was happy. I also think there might have been a little pinch of wonder about the cake being a touch too simply decorated. But then I cut into it and served it up to some very happy, surprised smiles!
The cake itself was chocolate with a double filling of both solid ganache and whipped ganache, with a vanilla butter cream frosting.
Overall it was a great surprise, a fun birthday and a great time spent with loving family. Oh, and it was all gluten free too, even though I didn't tell anyone and they loved it!
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