"Surprise Me" Cake

Last week, before I went for my one-week training in Dallas, Suha asked me to make a cake for him. He didn't give any specifications on the kind of cake that he wanted but he only said "surprise me!" So I turned the wheels in my head, trying to come up with a cake that will really surprise him. When I made the cake, I had no clue as to whom the cake is for... is it for a boy or a girl? is it for 5 or 20 people? does he want fondant or no fondant? I was very confused. Thankfully, after I returned from training I had the chance to meet and asked Suha these questions. :p

It turned out that the cake was for a birthday boy and it'll be consumed by quite a few people. So Suha decided that he wanted a 10-12" fondant cake.


The cake itself is made of 3 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with orange-infused buttercream and lots of jackfruit. I've never made nor tried this flavor combo before but I'm pretty sure many will be surprised. LOL. :p It was very difficult for me to decide on the kind of cake to make because there are too many possibilities!

I also had a hard time deciding on the cake design. You see, I'm not a very creative person and over the past fondant experiences, I realized that I may not been very good at it. One of the biggest challenge for me in working with fondant is covering the cake with it. It seemed like a simple step and one of the basics of using fondant. But somehow, I'm not very good at it. It's always such a challenge to have a smooth cake. This has been a particular challenge since I started using Satin Ice fondant.

But something was different when I covered this cake with fondant. I remembered my mom's words: "If your heart's not in the right mood, you can't make a good cake." So I calmed my anxious heart down and I felt relaxed and at peace. I started weighing the fondant, then rolling it out, and lay it on the cake - and everything went very smoothly. I didn't have any cracked sides and the caked looked alright. :) Thanks, Mom!

After passing the most difficult stage of the fondant process, I played around with some decoration ideas. I know the cake is for a boy and so flowers, pink stuff, and hearts are out the door. Since this is a gift, I decided to make the bow and some contemporary polka-dots. I choose the ivory and dark brown color combination for the cake because I believe that they really compliment each other. I think that the cake looked simple and rather elegant. What do you think?

This cake will be picked up later tonight, so we'll see how the taste test went! :)