Soccer Jersey Chocolate Cake

So, about that other cake I made at the end of last week. A few weeks back, a good friend, Mariana (check out her fantastic blog, Gift Favours Under $5), asked me to make a birthday cake featuring the Stoke On The Trent football team's jersey and logo.

This seemed like an easy enough challenge although I was pretty nervous about making a cake for someone outside my family. This was the first time that failure would not be an option and I was feeling the pressure, and for good reason.

I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe for this cake, and it turned out quite nicely except that the chocolate chips in it stuck to the bottom of the pan and it broke coming out. Broke only slightly, but broke nonetheless.

I managed to save the situation by using that broken side of the cake to trim in order to make the sleeves. Crisis averted. For the time being.

Next, my chocolate butter cream was too thick and wouldn't go on smoothly, so I had to thin it out so that I could have a smooth surface.

Next, my fondant was drying out a quite a rapid pace (quicker than usual) and would not cooperate. As if it needed to be more problematic when I'd already fought tooth and nail to get it red.

Finally, I was doing a shell border around the edge of the cake and ran out of white icing with about 3 inches to go and had to make more for that tiny length. By the time I was finished, it looked like a bomb had gone off in my kitchen, with chocolate icing in one corner, vanilla butter cream in another, and the counter covered in scraps of fondant. It took an hour (with the help of my lovely mother) to clean up the mess of icing sugar, fondant, and butter cream that coated just about every surface.

Needless to say, when it was all said and done I was less than satisfied with the results of this cake. Perhaps that was just due to my frustration, I can't be sure. I guess it's true that we are our own harshest critics. Although, I did use gum paste for the first time when making the crest and I can honestly say that I quite enjoyed using it. It's much easier to work with than fondant.