My boyfriend is fascinated with everything to do with cultivating mushrooms- Mycelium! Mycelium! Mycelium! I decided that this year for his birthday I would make him a mushroom cake.! (Following an excellent meal that highlighted several varieties of local organic mushrooms.! I made mushroom soup, mushroom marsala bruschetta with melted grueyere, and homemade pasta with pesto and mushrooms.! Yum.!)
First I baked all of the cake- I used 2 9 in rounds and baked a third layer in a smaller oval pan. While the cake was cooling, I whipped up some buttercream frosting, processed some oreo "dirt", and sculpted some of the mushrooms out of gumpaste (an edible clay-like substance). I used varying degrees of brown food gel to achieve a range of shades with the mushrooms. I ended up making 28 mushrooms, as it was his 28th birthday.! (Mysteriously I just happened to have exactly 28 candles in a drawer too, so clearly we had to use them all- it's a sign.!!!) I crafted some of the mushrooms after species that I knew, such as morels, shiitakes, oysters, namekos, etc. After the mushrooms had dried and hardened enough, I dusted each with some cocoa powder to give them a weathered, dirty look. I iced and assembled the cake, using a wooden dowel through the middle of the cakes to secure the oval layer on top. I iced the cake with two varying shades of brown tinted icing that I swirled together and generously covered with the oreo crumbs. I melted some dark chocolate that I then swirled into a tree trunk vine-like pattern up the side of the cake. Lastly, I finished the cake by placing all 28 mushrooms atop it.
Happy Birthday Buggie Boo.!!! :D
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