The beginning of a trend

Way way way back on the 1st of May my friend Liss got married to her beau Justin. I've been so incredibly busy and my laptop is about to go to computer heaven so it has been next to impossible to update you all on the cakes I've been doing. My sincere apologies!

Anyhoo, on to more exciting things...like cake. Delicious cake.

Liss asked me to make a 'mad hatter' or 'topsy turvy' cake. I had some hesitations about doing this cake because I had never attempted anything like it before. I even took two days off from work to make sure I had plenty of time to get this monster done.

It was to a be a three tiered mad hatter, comprised of jaffa mud, white mud and fruit cake tiers. Liss' grandma was to supply me with her world famous fruit cake and I was responsible for the other two flavours.

I researched my little heart out prior to the occasion to ensure that I was prepared for pretty much anything. Here's how I did it.

After sculpting all three tiers (holding the knife on an angle so that the cake is smaller at the bottom than the top) I covered the bottom two tiers with ganache.

I then cut a hole in the top of the cake just a little bigger than the bottom of the cake that was going on top of it (you must leave a little extra room for the fondant that will go on the cake).

Cover the cakes in fondant and get them nice and smooth using fondant smoothers. Give the cakes an hour or so to rest so that they are nice and firm when you are stacking them. I chose to stack all three tiers and transport it assembled (that was a nailbiting ride...my ex is a rally driver and he doesn't exactly take corners slowly!)

When it comes time to assemble the cake, ensure that each tier is on a cake board cut to the exact size of the sculpted tier.

I am not one for using dowels; I did try once and they we so incredibly painful that I reverted to my practice of using thick straws. These work just fine and are far less hassle. Insert straws cut to the exact height of the tier you're working on and then place the next cake into the hole you've created on the cake below. Ensure the angles of the cake are opposed, otherwise you won't get the same 'look' to the cake. Repeat the process until you've stacked all tiers.

After the decorating was complete, here's how the cake turned out:

I surprised myself in that I was able to refrain from squealing when they cut up my work of art. Excellent.

Congratulations to Liss and Justin; may your life together be full of love and happiness.