How did I get connected with Holt?? Well, it all started when earlier this week at my daughter’s school a parent of one of my daughter’s classmates saw my blog and the cakes I make. She sweetly asked me if I’d be willing to put a cake up for auction for this weekend! Whew!! – not much time!! I only had a few days, so I had to keep the design pretty simple and also make something that would be finished and sitting out for a few days. So, I made my yuuuummmmy dark chocolate mudcake (which tastes like truffles) filled with swiss meringue vanilla bean buttercream and dark chocolate ganache. The bottom tier is four 6″ layers and the top is two 5″ layers. All the black decorations are modeling chocolate colored black…and it tastes weird! I can’t stand the taste of food coloring and for some reason I had to add quite a bit of it to get it black black…so, the flavor is off. But it smells good!!
The logo on the front is Holt’s new logo and the hand painted saying on the top tier is their new slogan, “From your heart to your home”. It was a fun, and quick, cake to make!!
OH, and I also made a new fondant and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! You can find the recipe here…I’ve made it before but it seemed complicated before…however I do remember liking it. So, I tried it again and truly adore it! The steps were easy to follow (I used milk instead of cream), although I totally ruined my first batch by trying to make it in the kitchenaid mixer. The next time I mixed it/kneaded it by hand and it was perfect!! It is SOO much less sticky than the marshmallow and it doesn’t sweat when you take it out of the fridge. It was just so easy to work with! Next time though I will only add about 3 pounds of powdered sugar, let it sit up a bit, and then add more if necessary. I got a bit of elephant skin around the bottom when smoothing it…probably user error – I added too much powdered sugar.
So, try it out and see if you like it! It’s wonderful!!
Thanks for looking!
Hey! Thanks so much for sharing everything. I love reading all of your posts I was just wondering, for your mudcake, what kind of chocolate do you use? And what brand? I tried that fondant recipe today and loved it! I did it in the KitchenAid and it turned out great. Thanks for sharing!
I use the dark Belgium chocolate from Trader Joe’s. It’s THE BEST!! – for the price – and it’s local! It’s beautiful, dark and full of flavor. I buy the pound plus bar.
Glad you liked the fondant! I love it!
Oh my goodness, this looks so amazing! This cake is making my mouth water… chocolate truffle cake- wow! I think it’s so wonderful that you’re so willing to share all your favorite recipes. I really appreciate that about your blog! Someday I may attempt to make a fondant cake, but may be needing your input! Great job on whipping out a cake this beautiful in such a short amount of time! Holt is such a great organization!
Thank you so so much. I’ve made quite a few versions of the mudcake with different kinds of chocolate. My favorite was the Ghiradelli but the bars were 3.50 or so in my grocery store and I needed 4 of them for the recipe. It was AMAZING but I was hoping to explore some other options. Thanks!
Jason and Hannah: Yes, it’s an expensive cake to make and it REALLY makes a difference in flavor if you use a gooooood quality chocolate!! Try the Trader Joe’s chocolate. It’s $5 per bar, but you only need one.
Thanks! I’m excited to give it a whirl
Love your blog and we’ve awarded you the stylish blogger award
What a beautiful cake! I love your blog. You are so talented.
http://www.sweetspotsinmyheart.blogspot.com
That cake looks awesome! I’d love to give this recipe a try! Do you have an easy way to convert measurement from metric to standard?
I just discovered your blog yesterday and I have been on a reading frenzy ever since! I am in awe of you, your techniques, and your great suggestions! I was wondering…how did you create the “55” topper on this cake? If you can share what you used for material (fondant, modeling chocolate, etc), your technique for sculpting the numbers, and how you secured them to the cake, I would greatly appreciate it! I just made a 4-tiered winter-themed Sweet 16 cake that came out lovely, but I attempted to use 50/50 fondant/gumpaste to create the “16” for the topper and it was a total fail! Any information that you are willing to share will be sincerely appreciated!
Hi Pam! Yeah, I’m glad you found me!
The black numbers were modeling chocolate. I rolled it out into a thick rope on a piece of wax paper and then curved it around into the 55. I then put a toothpick into them and let them sit out for a day or so. The only thing that’s bad about modeling chocolate is that it has to be thick enough to hold itself, but not too thick or it’ll be too heavy. And, if there is a swing in temp, it’ll relax again. SO…it’s not super stable. I’d probably do gumpaste if you really worry about it and make it several days ahead of time.
Thank you, Jessica!!
I use Toba Garrett’s fondant recipe, and I like it a lot. Have you ever tried it?
I haven’t! I’ll have to look into it! Thanks!
Jessica Love it! May I know how did you get the words onto the cake issit the same technique that you uses on the korean bdae cake with the korea wordings ?
Thank you! Yes, I used a tiny paint brush and used the same technique as the Korean cake!