It’s a terrible picture, taken in bad light against a wrong background, but I just wanted to show Rose and Hector the 9” and 6” version of the Tropical wedding cake I’d made for a weekend 4-way birthday celebration.  Everyone thought it looked like a wedding cake (!!!!) but since the birthday celebrants were 2 grown men, a young lady and an 8-year-old boy, I had a hard time thinking of how to decorate it and in the end went simple.  The off-centre stacking doesn’t work so well here, it really needs a significantly smaller top tier and the 3” difference wasn’t enough.  So it just prompted my husband to ask why I’d stacked the cake so crookedly.  Also chopped the mac nuts too large and ran a bit short, and to avoid having to run out for more, had to do some judicious speading of the nuts on the bottom tier, hence the slightly sparse look.  I thought the passion mousseline went very well with the banana cake.

Thank you so much Rose!

i think it looks great, too. it is very level and your piping is good!  I can guess you placed the macs one by one with tweezers, as I did!

er, no… Hector, I love your work but I don’t have the enormous patience and attention to detail that you have… not to mention styling skills :-(  That’s why I have to look to you for inspiration!!  (And trust me I inspected your Tropical birthday cake for the longest time thinking of how I could decorate mine!)  I placed the nuts the way Rose recommended in the book - holding the cake in one hand and pressing them on a handful at a time.  Actually I imagine it would be easier to place whole nuts with tweezers than the mac pieces which are all odd shapes.

Yes, the cakes are very even!! That is some impressively flat and smooth buttercream in the middles!  And your piping looks like little pearls! 

And if the mac pieces are a bit large, well, that’s just more mac flavor in every bite, and that’s ALWAYS a good thing.

This Show ‘n’ Tell topic is going to have to come down—my ‘To Bake’ list is looking a lot like my childhood letters to Santa…..

Another very inspiring cake!!!

It’s gorgeous! I also love the off-center placing of the top tier. The nuts are really even, your piping is gorgeous, and the frosting is very even. Congrats!

Really lovely, what a beautiful cake!

Gorgeous!  Congrats!

Thanks so much everyone for the encouragement.  I am only disappointed about the terrible photo.