Pride & Prejudice Cake

 Yes, you read that correctly. This is a Pride and Prejudice cake based on different elements of the book by Jane Austen. Since Grace and her family were in town for Stephanie's wedding (see the post right before this one), she wanted to order this cake special for her mother's birthday. She knew she wanted something to do with reading but I'll be honest, when she said "Pride and Prejudice" I drew a total blank. Luckily my sisters-in-law love that book and were totally helpful in getting this order together. They told me to add little pieces such as the letter, the music piece, the ink and quill, a top hat and bonnet... so they pretty much told me exactly what to do to make this cake great! haha (Thanks, Ladies!) The cake was chocolate with chocolate buttercream. Here are some up close shots of the cake:

This first up close picture shows the letter (with the "wax" stamped seal) and the brooch of a woman's profile. These are all made out of sugar. The brooch was the most fun piece of all because I got my man-friend involved as well. He's quite the artist so when I asked him to paint on a woman's profile like a brooch, he was excited to get it right. He painted the profile with black food coloring and a paintbrush and it literally took him a few minutes. I was so pleased with the end piece. I added a tiny fondant bow,a beaded black border, smaller silver dragee border, and an even smaller gray border to give it some depth and dimension.

 The pattern of the book was a beautiful stencil I found at a local craft store that looked "antiquey" to me. I added the patterned side piece with a frill cutter and then made grooves in the sides of the book to make it look like pages. The quill and ink bottle are also all sugar, as well as the candle.

This Waltz music sheet was really fun to make as well. I first cut out a flat piece of fondant. I drew on actual music (I found some waltz on the internet and just added those notes to the piece). Then, I laid the fondant over a few strips of plastic wrap so that it would dry and harden with a little bit of a wave to it. I added just a touch of ivory coloring to make it look a bit worn and old.

I absolutely loved making this cake! Each piece was so detailed and unique! Grace later told me that her mother loved it so much that they shipped each sugar piece over to her house so that she could keep them as mementos. I was so happy to hear just how much they enjoyed the cake!