I received this cake order with the following brief: chocolate mud drip cake for a 50th with Lindt chocolate and strawberries. I am always looking for an excuse to use new techniques and with this brief being without pictures my mind started racing with the possibilities on how I would decorate. Entering into the world of gold leaf. Yes. I know this is nothing new to the world of cakes, but it is to my world of cakes.

So, the cake itself: 2 layers of 6″ chocolate mudcake, filled with Rich n Smooth Vanilla icing (the customer requested for not too sweet – I find this is a wonderful filling as it’s more like a mock cream so aids in cutting through the richness of a cake). Coated with chocolate ganache and topped with a white chocolate drip tinged with Americolor’s gold.

I used a mix of crushed chocolate cookies and gold sanding sugar to add some texture around the base of the cake, along with gold bullet candles. I wasn’t going to even try placing 50 of them around this cake – just the 5, one for each decade lol I am really liking the use of the bullet candles along with my cakes so I will probably venture into doing them more often where the occasion suits.

On the top of the cake is an assortment of goodies:  an entire block of Lindt 70% dark chocolate, a Lindt milk chocolate bar, Lindt milk chocolate balls, home made chocolate macarons (there’s more behind that big block that you can’t see in these pictures),and some cut strawberries. I have added gold leaf to the chocolate elements, and brushed the strawberries with gold lustre paint. This is definitely an indulgent celebration cake. I hope to get more opportunities to play with gold leaf in the future 🙂