Crissa's Cake Corner!: Gold Ombré & Grey Marble Cakes

I got to make two birthday cakes for a young lady celebrating her 18th birthday. The first was a simple, yet elegant gold and white design accented by baby's breath, and the other was a marble-style cake, using shades of grey.

Gold Ombré & Grey Marble cake for an 18th birthday celebration*

The first cake was a vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream filling. It was finished with a coating of smooth white buttercream. I actually had to dye the buttercream white to brighten it up, using Chefmaster liquid whitener food colouring. The butter here is rather yellow and results in an off-white/cream-coloured buttercream otherwise.

baby's breath wreath

The classic cake design is based on Edith Patisserie's "gold ombré cake": white buttercream cake brushed with edible gold and decorated with a wreath of baby's breath on top. I used Rolkem Supers Gold, mixed with a little vodka to paint the gold on around the bottom of the cake. I really love the shiny finish.

gold and white cake with baby's breath wreath

The sprigs of baby's breath were a pain to arrange one sprig at a time over the cake, and it was probably even more of a pain to remove them before consumption cuz baby's breath isn't completely edible. Oh the things we do for aesthetics.

shiny shiny gold

The other cake was a play on marble design, in a grey-white colour palette. The cake was the crowd-pleasing, ever-popular devil's food cake with whipped dark chocolate ganache. After crumb-coating the cake, I worked on the chocolate sail, which looks daunting to make but is actually pretty easy!

grey marble cake with chocolate sail, macarons & berries

I melted compound white chocolate in a small bowl and added a few swirls of dark chocolate dyed black with powdered food colouring, and then used a toothpick to marble it a little bit. Then I poured the whole thing on a large piece of parchment paper, spread it out using an offset spatula, and then used a few clothespins to pin the paper into shape.

marbled chocolate sail in the making

Let the chocolate cool down a bit before shaping the paper, or else the warm, runny chocolate will pool in some sections and be unpleasantly thick. I let the chocolate sail set in the fridge for about 20 mins, and then pulled it out into an air-conditioned room before peeling the parchment paper off.

fancy marbled chocolate sail

The cake was covered with white fondant that was marbled with some grey and black fondant. I then cut a slit on top of the cake so that I could insert the chocolate sail. Stab the chocolate sail deep enough into the cake so that it's able to support itself without falling over. (I didn't use any sticks for support).

marbled fondant

marble canvas ready for decorations

The cake was decorated with crushed digestive biscuits, some dark grey lemon meringue macarons and some fresh blueberries and strawberries, dry-brushed with gold for a touch of class. I brushed the cut strawberry with some mirror glaze to keep it fresh. If you use cut fresh fruit to decorate and don't glaze them, they will dry up and get wrinkly in the fridge. The glaze protects the berries and keeps them looking fresh.

grey marble cake

grey macarons and berries brushed with gold

The cakes were displayed at the celebration by the birthday girl's family, DIY'd using props and cake stands rented from All Mommy Wants. Love elegant simplicity of the set up. Happy 18th birthday, Shannon!