Today I said good-bye to a sweet friend who is moving away next weekend! I made her a suitcase cake to celebrate their new adventure that awaits them as they transition south about 5 hours from us. I have been wanting to make a suitcase for a while and had a 9″ single round from a chocolate caramel mudcake experiment I had just done, so I figured hey, why not put together a mini suitcase for my sweet friend?! So I did…and she loved it!
I used my favorite chocolate mudcake recipe and added a can of Carmel Dulce De Leche to it! The caramel flavor wasn’t as strong as it could have been if I would have used white chocolate. But it was subtly present. I used coffee in place of the water, so it had a very subtle mocha flavor…it’s so yummy! I think next time I want to make the chocolate caramel version, I would use water or milk instead of coffee. I torted the 9″ cake, filled it with one layer of vanilla buttercream, cut the round down to a little rectangle and used the scraps to make an itty-bitty purse for on top. Here’s a pic with some silverware so you can see how little it was…about 7.5″x5″! 
Little cakes are SO hard to make!! You’d think they’d be easier…but they’re not because the fondant doesn’t have a place to go!! And, little things are hard to hold! If I would have had an extra day or two I could have made the buckles a bit straighter, but I didn’t have a lot of time for things to dry…I pretty much did the whole thing in one night. I look forward to making another one because it was a simple cake, but still complex in its own way. Now I have to figure out how to make silver luster dust look smooooother!! Any ideas??? I used vodka mixed with the luster dust, but it never looks like real metal to me…more antiqued – not shiny.
All in all, it was a fun cake and I was happy to be able to do it for my sweet friend! I wish her and her family all the best!!
Jessica, Thank you for sharing your talent in cake crafting and everything.
Do you use fondant to decorate your cakes or do you use gum paste??
I use Wilton Ready made Fondant. Do you know how I can flavor it?
I live in Singapore, sometimes when the weather is so humid, my fondant dont dry . What can I do??
Thank you for your thoughts.
Jacqui
Hi Jessica,
Absolutely loving your blog! You are incredibly talented, how lucky your friends must feel to have you grace them with such perfection. Wonderful! Just a little thought on your silver hardware dullness problem – have you tried using confectioner’s glaze? You can just paint (or rather to dab it on as a classic painting motion may leave streaks) it on after colouring with the lustre dust. It’s also called leaf glaze. I buy mine from the UK ebay site. Quite inexpensive (about £10 for 100ml shipped to Australia) for an amount that could last you years! It is very sticky stuff so I recommend using an old paint brush and a throw away container, but it dries lovely and shiny.
Anyway, I’m off to read some more of your fabulous posts.
Kate x
P.S. I realise you live in the U.S. but I imagine postage may be about the same if not less.
WOW, thanks Kate! I’ll have to look into that!
Blessings!
WOW!!!!! This is insane!!!! LOVE it! What a beautiful job!
Made this for friends leaving the UK to move to the US so used blue to accent instead of black. Does not look as amazing as yours, but I’m proud of the result. Thanks for the inspiration! Blessings!
This looks amazing!
I have been asked to quote on a cake like this for 100 people the person is talking of 12 or 18 inch rectangle. coukd you please help me
I’m sorry I don’t know much about quoting large cakes. BUT, if you go to Wilton’s website, they have charts for birthday cakes and wedding cakes that show how many servings each serves so you can figure out how big your cakes need to be. I wish you the best!