Chapel Cake

Pastillage. Learned a whole new medium in which to work with. Pastillage is a sugar dough that dries very very hard. It is very useful for making structures, like the chapel for this cake:

Pastillage is great because you can use it construct anything, from the Eiffel Tower to a church to maybe even the Colosseum. You just need to have the template before hand and precisely cut the rolled-out pastillage. After drying for at least 24 hours, assembly is much like assembling a gingerbread house, using royal icing as the glue. 

This chapel cake was for BJ's bridal shower. I was trying something more funky by marbling the teal and purple base. The cake is a really tasty English-style fruit cake. I know most people say yuck when they think of fruit cake, but that's because they've probably eaten one made with those scary neon red and green candied cherries. Those are not appetizing at all and deserve the 'yuck'. This fruit cake was made with organic raisins, cranberries and home-made candied orange peel. Muuuch more tasty. Trust me.

The flowers and details on the purple "mat" were made using royal icing, piped separately, allowed to dry, and then attached to the cake with more royal icing. I'm really loving the impression rolling pins as they give a nice texture which changes things up a bit.

So remember, next time you need to build a structure, think Pastillage!