Joshua's Christening

Joshua's mum had been hanging out for me to move from Melbourne to Ballarat because she really wanted to try one of my cakes. Well, with my recent move back to 'The Rat' and her little one's christening coming up, she asked me to finally do a cake for her.

Her request was one I'd never done before; she and her husband had saved the top tier of their wedding cake and wanted to use it as part of the christening cake. I immediately agreed - I think it's a lovely tradition. Then I thought - 'err, I've never covered a fruit cake before!'

I knew the method for covering fruit cakes involves 'plugging' the holes with fondant or marzipan (and since I think marzipan tastes like poo I went for fondant).

Before covering with fondant, I brushed the cake with some warmed apricot jam (after all, the fondant needs some sort of adhesive). Just pop a couple of teaspoons into a dish and warm it in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until runny.

The only issue I had was that I didn't want to roll the fondant too thickly as had been done the first time around for the wedding. I like my cakes to have sharp edges, not rounded, and there is no way to achieve a sharp, crisp edge with fondant an inch thick. I covered the cake with a thin layer of fondant and then covered with a second thin layer to ensure I could get a sharp edge and a smooth finish.

Joshua's mum chose a dark chocolate mud cake to sit under the fruit cake and I torted this with vanilla buttercream.

I was given free reign with this cake (woohoo!) so I sculpted a fondant teddy and blocks for the top of the cake. The bottom tier was decorated with fondant cutouts in shades of blue and a little banner with Joshua's name and christening date (I have removed his name from the picture).

I was happy with how it all turned out, and judging by Joshua's mum's reaction, she was too. I got a message from her the following day: 'Thank you...everyone loved it and the mud was sooooooooo yummy!'