I want to share my first suckling piglet cake, hope you will like it and surely any comment and critiques are welcome!

Thanks
Ineke
http://www.facebook.com/GloriaCake

This was a pain in the arse cake. I use the mirette tomboy cake in a 7x3 pan. I thought hmm…divide in 2 or 3…decided 2 would work. Then, i realized it wasn’t tall enough to look like a monstertruck tire with 2 layers only, so i needed to add height. I thought hmm..buddy always add rice krispy treats to his cakes…but i had only fruity pebbles. So i made fruit pebble marshmallow treats and added an extra 2 inches to the height of the cake and covered it with fondant.
ARFH!! 
no one will eat this cake but me and my husband and the kids, so i didnt measure the treads like i should of.

This was my first time working with whipped cream frostings, and last week I got some useful tips from Julie on the forum. It was somewhat of a challenge to put this cake together, because butter cakes like to be warm, but whipped cream likes to be cold. I needed to bring this cake unrefrigerated to a picnic and have it not melt into a puddle within 4-5 hours. Initially, I considered the White Ganache, mostly whipped cream stabilized with a bit of white chocolate. However, I don’t quite like the flavor of white chocolate and didn’t want it to interfere with the strawberry. I remembered Hector Wong had a special technique for stabilizing whipped cream. I browsed through his blog and found the post. Whip the cream to soft peaks in a room temp bowl. Then put it in the fridge overnight and whip to stiff peaks the next day. The result should be stable for 4 hours at room temp. This really fascinated me. The fact that you don’t need to use cornstarch or gelatin, etc. to stabilize whipped cream. I had to try this. Of course, my whipped cream would also be stabilized by the thickness of the creme fraiche and also the pectin in the strawberry conserve. Well, it worked pretty well. I made the frosting first thing in the morning and shaped a spoonful into a quenelle and then put in on a small plate. By afternoon, it still held the shape and no watering out!

My gripes about the cake… The whipped cream frosting was delicious, but I found the texture to be a bit too soft. I was hoping for a mousse-like, spongy texture. I think I will add gelatin next time to get that effect. Of course a butter cake would be traditional for a strawberry shortcake, but I find that I prefer lighter sponge cakes instead. Butter cakes are a little too rich for my tastes. I never liked pound cakes, etc. much either. This strawberry shortcake could also work with a genoise syruped with a mixture of Frangelico, Chambord, splash of rosewater, and the strawberry macerating syrup. Or for a compromise between a rich butter cake and a light sponge cake—-the Golden Genoise!

The cake was super moist, and lemony.  Everyone loved it.  I liked it, but I am more of a vanilla/chocolate girl.  My mother in law mentioned to me later in the evening that when she got married they never did have a wedding cake when they got married 50 years ago.  I am so glad I decided to make a smaller sized version of a wedding cake than a sheet cake.  She finally got her wedding cake ( even if it was 50 years later )

I made all of the flowers and leaves out of gumpaste, as well as the brooches on the ribbon.  The peonies took a long time to make and I was glad they got their in one piece.

Anyway, I made quite a bit of Mothers’ Day Cakes for an order. They were all the same, just different colors.

Cake is yellow butter cake
Buttercream filling and frosting and buttercream roses.

Candied kumquat and orange blossom water cheesecake; biscuit de Savoie base (soaked with 1/4 c. Frangelico and of course more liquid from the cheesecake), lemon curd topping; candied kumquat, candied lemon, and candied clementine roses garnish. Lavender stems from the garden.

I have room for improvement..