Beer Mug Cake

I created this Beer Mug Cake for my friends' birthdays! First, I made a Guinness chocolate cake .! which I baked in four layers of 6 in rounds. In between each layer of cake, I drizzled a liberal amount of caramel topping and added a layer of Guinness buttercream icing as well. I piped vertical lines of dark chocolate Guinness buttercream icing around the mug cake, and used an offset spatula to distress those lines and simulate an oversized mug of beer.
                                                   

I piped large rosettes of creamy foam-like icing over the top of the beer mug cake. I molded a handle out of gumpaste, and used gumpaste as a surface to further decorate the mug and write Prost! (Cheers in German) and Happy Birthday using food-safe markers. I covered a wooden dowel with dark brown tinted gumpaste that I attached to an empty Guinness bottle and let fully dry before inserting into the mug cake in order to create the illusion of pouring a beer into an oversized mug. I accented the finished product with additional caramel drippings and bits of "foam" and "beer".!