I was recently commissioned to create a birthday cake for a friend who happened to be having his party at a pool hall. I’ve wanted to get more comfortable with carving, so figured this was a great chance to try something different.

The cake is supposed to suggest a pool table, unfortunately I didn’t have the time to make it truly look LIKE a pool table – but wanted to at least suggest the location. I also had fun “making” a new billiard ball since there isn’t a 0.

The cake itself was the “After Eight” cake: Chocolate creme de menthe cake with irish creme frosting. The balls are cake crumbs covered in fondant, and are the only bits of fondant on the cake.

I learned that creating clean lines with two colors of butter cream frosting on a cake is much harder that it looks, and took much longer than I’d have liked. But was so worth it!

Next up, a co-worker recently got married. I didn’t have the chance to bake before the wedding, so to celebrate, I made a strawberry-lemon cake with strawberry frosting with a “ball and chain” theme. Again the ball is cake crumbs covered in fondant. The chain is gumpaste covered in fondant, which while making I felt like I was rolling a very odd cigarette. Of course all you would get if you lit them would be creme brulee! (*drum snare*)

I have to say they were both great fun to make! I hope to have some time soon (once school is done) to make more theme type cakes.