Abstract Painted Cake

Its a cake. No….Its a work of art. I decided to make a cake to celebrate my birthday. I had never made a birthday cake for myself before (well, I tried on my 11th birthday but it was a disaster. That’s a story for another day) and decided this was gonna be the year I would make one. I wanted a cake that represented my personality and to a large extent, I succeeded. This is not a therapy session and so I will spare you the interpretation of this cake, and by extension, my life’s story. Some people might find this cake ugly, hey that’s arts for you. It’s interpretation and appreciation is very subjective.

This is a 4 layered 8 inch cake. It is a made up of a combination of both a red velvet cake (recipe here) and a Mocha Butter cake. The cake is frosted with cream cheese frosting (recipe here) and covered with marshmallow fondant (recipe here).

I first covered the cake with white fondant, thus giving me a blank canvas to paint. The cake was placed on a cake board covered with black fondant.

I used a combination of 7 colors to paint the fiery background: buttercup yellow, orange, red, rose pink, ivory, peach and copper.

I later placed some white fondant slabs on the cake and pained an abstract zebra on it.

As a topper, I created two baskets using fondant and rested them on each other.

Finally, I completed the look with some fondant cowries.

I should do this more often. It was really quite therapeutic. Cheers to a great year ahead.

About Terry Adido

Terry Adido is passionate about showing people how easy it is to recreate restaurant quality meals in the comfort of their kitchens. With a style of cooking he refers to as Afro-European Fusion, his meals are influenced greatly by French and Italian Cuisine with a West African twist. If you love good food, you are in for the ride of your life.

ibukun says:

May 6, 2014 at 7:32 pm

Happy belated birthday to you…its a cute cake and I love it..
I must tell you,I am inspired by ur work..
Just have 2 questions
1)What brand of edible colour do u use
2)How did u give ur fondant a basket like structure.
Thanks

Terry Adido says:

May 6, 2014 at 11:12 pm

Hi. First, I use Wilton’s color paste. Secondly, I cut strips of fondant and layered them over round 6″ cake baking pans. Allowed them to dry over night and then removed pans.