Maroon & Brown Shimmer Cake

I was asked to make a display cake for an awesome venue that I partner with (The Gathering Place at Gardner Village) because they were doing a wedding show. I've been to their main reception hall and it's warm and rustic so I wanted to bring in those tones with this display cake. The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. This top tier is quilted and I placed little impressions in the corners so that it looks more like a cushion or pillow or fabric. Then, I placed little edible dragees in the center of the corners. I added a beaded border made out of MMF to top off this tier. The second tier has an edible brown ribbon with a brooch studded with more dragees. I layered fondant around the tier a few times to give it the look of fabric as well. The third tier is a hexagon and I covered it in white fondant. Then, I used a sponge and food coloring to sponge on a brown tone. I let it dry and then sponged on another layer of brown dye.

Lastly for this tier, I used a damask stencil up against the dried fondant and essentially spray painted edible shimmer onto the cake so that it only showed up in the light. It's such a soft pattern that's barely noticeable but it's one of my favorite touches on the cake. I added a very small pearl border around this tier as well. The fourth tier repeated the design of the second tier with a maroon background and the "fabric" fondant border and a larger edible bow & brooch. The last tier was similar to the top tier. For this one though, I did a little something different.

I have done the quilted pattern on many cakes but I wanted to make it unique for this display. Rather than quilting the whole base, I centered the pattern on each side and only quilted a triangle shape onto the cake. Again, this was such a subtle touch but I love it. This final tier had a pearl border as well. I sprayed the whole cake down with the same edible shimmer that the damask pattern was sprayed with and made the whole cake pop a little more.

The ladies at the Gathering Place said it was a big hit and it looked like it belonged in their wedding set up at the wedding expo. It was home :)