With my daughter’s thirteenth birthday coming up, I’ve been under lots of pressure to come up with another one of the novelty cakes I’ve baked for her since she was three years old. The tradition of giving Anwyn a home-made cake that’s decorated (or architected) to reflect one of her current interests has led to some rather fun experiments over the years (see last year’s
iPod cake) and I wanted to make sure she had something fun to celebrate her official entry into teenager-dom. Although I’d already used an equestrian theme for the carousel cake I made for her eleventh birthday, her continued passion for riding left me with no choice other than to find something else clever to do with horses.
Since Anwyn’s begun to learn the basics of jumping and dressage, the idea of an edible show ring was a natural choice for this year’s theme. My Mom volunteered to bake the wonderful
sour cream chocolate cake upon which I’d build the arena. It’s delicious and a bit more firm than the Texas Sheet Cake recipe I’ve used for most of my past creations. Instead of the chocolate icing suggested by the recipe, I went with a
cooked caramel frosting that promised to harden up and give me a solid base to work on. After having used it, I can assure you it is easy to make and delicious. About the only drawback is that it sets up quickly as it cools, making it a challenge to get a really smooth finish on the cake. In the case of my cake this was not a problem because most of the cake was covered by the miniature riding ring which was built from cherry licorice twists and filled with edible “dirt” concocted by pulverizing a mixture of graham crackers and chocolate cookies.
I’d hoped to bake a bunch of pastries shaped like the different obstacles found in show rings but time constraints forced me to simplify my plans. Fortunately,
Breyer toys makes wonderful model horses and accessories – including a small
play set that includes two fully-tacked-up horses, a pair of riders, and a lovely miniature jump. I contacted my favorite Breyer
dealer and it was at my doorstep two days later.
With the horses, riders, and hardware all in place, all that remained was to add a touch of realism to the scene with tastefully-arranged piles of fake manure. Concocting an edible mixture that resembled the equestrian byproduct proved to be a bit of a challenge but after an hour or so of tinkering I found that melting a couple of marshmallows and adding some cocoa powder and finely-grated coconut produced something with surprisingly realistic color and texture. It took another half hour of experimenting with the hot, sticky mixture to figure out how to use a pair of toothpicks to gather up and form nice little piles that I’d cool on a sheet of wax paper before setting down in the horse ring.
Although not as elaborate as some creations of years past, Anwyn’s thirteenth birthday cake was fun to look at and a delight to eat. Some of her teenage friends who attended the surprise party were a bit put off by the pieces of fake poop on their slice of cake but most of them were won over once they took the first bite.
As usual, this was a team effort so I’d like to thank my wife Catherine for providing excellent logistical support (as always) and handling most of the actual arrangements for the party. I’d also like to thank my Mom, Caryll Goldberg, for taking the better part of the day to bake the cake and to help keep Anwyn out of the house while I put the final touches on the decorations. It’s a real blessing to have such a nice family to play with.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions for next year’s Extreme Cake? Write me at
lhg at en-genius dot net or post your comments on our blog.
