Doggone It

In my next few posts I'm going to share some of my cake projects with you. Some of these are quite old so forgive me for no step by step guide but I'm really proud of them so I'm going to share them anyway!

The Dachshund cake

My inlaws absolutely love dachshunds,  in fact they own 4 of them and each one is treated like absolute royalty (as only a daxie should be treated!). Their birthdays are days apart (the inlaws that is) so I decided to make them a dream daxie cake!

Firstly came the cake. I made my speciality moist chocolate sponge and carved it into the body, feet, head and nose of the daxie.

From the beginning I knew I wasn't going to use fondant. Neither of them are particularly fond of plastic icing so I knew I had to find an alternative. I read in one of my books about chocolate modelling clay (a very simple combination of melted chocolate and golden syrup). I know that it shouldn't be used to cover cakes but I figured a small area couldn't be that bad. With that I figured I might as well make this a fully chocolate cake and used chocolate ganache (combination of melted chocolate and cream) to sandwich the cake together and cover it.  For the head, feet and tail I further covered it with the chocolate clay to clarify detail. 

I did end up using a bit of fondant for the eyes,  collar and lettering but at least it was minimal.

The result?  A truly chocolate daxie that had the pathetic expression that they are known for!

Best part of the story? After having some for tea, the cake was left on the table while everyone went out for dinner. We arrived home to find that one of the live daxies had somehow managed to climb ON TO the table and ate half the remainder of the cake, leaving behind chocolatey pawprints! Despite chocolate being bad for dogs, he survived with only minor stomach cramps but sadly half the cake had to be thrown away.

Hilarity aside, my cakes are now kept FAR beyond a daxie's reach!!!!