A man had ordered this cake for his wife's 40th birthday. He told me she loved music and that she really liked fall colors, and if I could incorporate them both, then that would be great. No problem! (note a hint of sarcasm) How on earth was I going to mesh fall colors with music? Music notes are black against the stark white of a piece of paper! Fall colors are oranges, reds yellows and golds. Were there any songs about fall that I could reference? No. Could I somehow make the veins in the leaves look like musical notes? Ok, now I'm just talking crazy. With no luck trying to create an idea, I tried a bold move...I just started creating.
I put my cake together and iced it, just like always. Then I decided to add some shading with a neutral pinkish-brown color, so I airbrushed lightly along the bottom of each tier. Then... I was stumped.
I knew I had to define my themes somehow, so I made up several fondant maple leaves in various fall colors and set them aside. It was here, while staring at these leaves and thinking about music, that a little spark in my brain started a fire of ideas, and I knew exactly what to do!
I rolled out another piece of white fondant and cut it into a long rectangle. Remembering my 5 years of playing the flute, I painted on lines of music with black food coloring. While the fondant was still malleable, I draped it down the side of the cake so that it resembled the look of a piece of paper. Then I added my leaves and made up a few calla lilies airbrushed with the same color that I shaded the cake with before. And voila!
The cake looked great and had everything the client had asked for.
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