Blackjack/Casino Themed Cake

As a part of a joint friends 21st birthday celebration I was asked to make a cake. There were a few requirements for the cake:

1. Since it was 2 peoples birthday, it had to look/be 2 cakes.

2. It had to have the birthday theme which was casino.

3. Feed about 100 people.

After some late night Google search sessions, I finally came across a concept that was perfect for the occasion...Blackjack. I am not sure if people understood the cake, but it was Blackjack (since it was a casino themed) and when you get Blackjack it equals 21, which is how old they were turning. Inspiration came from: http://showusyourcakes.com/cakes/blackjack

For the cake, I used the Thunder Cake Recipe. I had to make two cakes, so the recipe was doubled/made twice (since I only had one cake pan, I could only bake one cake at a time). I used a rectangular cake pan that was larger than an a4 sized piece of paper (sorry but I don't know the exact specifications).

The ganache for the cake was 600ml cream with 600g chocolate (200g dark, 400g milk). I made the cake in the morning, of the day before the cake needed to be ready. So before any cutting or assembling was done, it had been refrigerated for about 6 hours.

Assembly

Stage one: Preparing

1. To make sure the cakes worked out, I scanned two playing cards (Jack and Ace) and enlarged them on a4 paper. I used them as my templates to how I wanted the cakes to be shaped, and for the outline of the cake.

2. The cakes were cut to shape. I put a little bit of ganache on the board before placing the cakes on, so that the cakes would be stable.

3. After getting the correct shape, I placed a crumb coat of ganache on the cake. Refrigerated for 2 hours.

4. Final coat of ganache, and then I evened out the cake and smoothed out the edges.

Stage Two: Decorating

The decorating of the cake was done on the morning of the birthday (since the party was hosted at night). I used the following products (most were purchased from Glasshouse Cakes):

• Black buttercream icing tube (CK decorating icing 113g)
• Yellow buttercream icing tube (CK decorating icing 113g)
• To use the buttercream you will need an icing tip, I used one at home, but the lines were quite thick, so if you want thinner lines buy a smaller tip.
• Red writing icing tube (from Woolworths)
• White vanilla flavoured fondant
• 18" square cake board and board

1. I traced the same two card print outs onto grease proof paper, and then traced those on to white fondant that I had rolled out, cut to a4 size and left to set (in a dry cool place away from any light).

2. To trace the image onto fondant, I used a blunt pencil so I didn't get any lead on the cake, but still had noticeable indents along the cake so I knew where I was decorating.

3. Using the black buttercream I started with the Ace of spades and traced along my lines made. Set aside.

4. Using the black buttercream again, I outlined the jack, and the patterned lines. I accidentally drew the line to far at the top, so to fix that I cut out that part of the fondant and flipped it over, and put it back together.

5. Using the red and yellow, I began to fill in the blanks of my outlines with the colours.

6. I carefully placed the ready made images onto the cake, and using the black buttercream, I outlined the outside of the cards.

7. For some final touches, I used white fondant to make out the birthday message. I stuck them on the board with some water. The box was then packed and ready to go.

The whole entire cake was finished on the night, with some people not being able to have a slice. The overall feedback on the cake was great, and it was definitely fun to make with only a few mishaps that definitely won't happen next time.

Good food, good times!