The Seasons of Life

Tomorrow my 'baby' will be 18 years old. We are throwing a big party for Natasha today at my mom's place. She asked for a chocolate cake, decorated in a garden theme. I had too many ideas of what to do. But in the end, this was what I came up with. This cake marks her coming of age, almost out of teen-hood, and growing into a young woman.

It is a 3 tier cake. Bottom and centre tier is a rich chocolate cake that had orange peel and Cointreau added. Top tier is a rich fruit cake filled with dried cranberries and golden raisins and laced with roasted hazelnuts.

The decorations was to show all the things she loved as a child and as she grew up, she wanted designer bags and shoes, all the food she grew up loving to have. Her sister helped to draw the facial expressions in one of the fondant figurines. A little girl cuddling up with pillows and blanket.

It was covered in Chocolate Marshmellow fondant which I made and added Peppermint extract. And I also mixed it with Satin Ice's Chocolate Fondant which I bought a month ago. It was the most delicious fondant I have ever bought to use. I added Varlhorna chocolate powder and Varlhorna dark chocolate bars to make the sugar paste.

The baking of the cake, plus decorating took me a day's work. I started early at 9am yesterday. By 11am,the cakes are cooling. I made the fondant and the other decorations. In between periods, I rested and also cooked all the sambal(chilli) pastes to be used in the BBQ today.








The seasons of life, that is what this cake is..as it shows the seasons of her life, seen in the eyes of a doting mother.

Happy 18th Birthday, my dearest Natasha