ESRC Logo Chocolate Indulgence Cake

The rec club of the place I used to work at was having an appreciation/welcome the new committee/farewell to the old committee dinner and they wanted a nice cake for dessert, with the new club logo on it. As I remember, it was just a simple red and white logo, with the four letters "ESRC" on it, so I said sure I can cut that out of fondant and put it on top of a chocolate cake. Imagine my surprise when I was sent the NEW logo. Holy smokes! So complicated!!!

It would have been so much easier to just get the image printed out on an edible image sheet like these Big Hero 6 cakes, but of course, the rec club guy wanted it in fondant. And I was crazy enough to take up the challenge. A completely hand-cut complicated fondant logo would be something to talk about for sure!

logo in progress

First, I printed the logo out on paper and then glued that on some cardboard. Then I cut the cardboard out and used that as a template to cut the different parts of the logo out of fondant using an Xacto knife. It was really really time consuming since it had to essentially be cut out twice, once from paper, and then from fondant. 

completely hand-cut fondant logo!

The most challenging bits of the logo was no doubt the bicycle people. Not one, but two people on bicycles. Gah! I couldn't cut the wheels any thinner without accidentally breaking the fondant. The "SINCE 1976" wording on the red scroll at the bottom of the logo was really tough too, since I had to hand cut all the letters and numbers. The "9" and "6" were particularly challenging cuz of the curves. 

5 hours of detailed effort later, I finally finished the completely hand-cut ESRC logo!! I think it turned out pretty well. My favourite parts are the little golfer, his little golf club and the big golf ball. For the golf ball, I marbled the fondant by mixing navy blue and white together and then rolling it out thinly, and then added dimples on the ball using my smallest ball tool. I also marbled the fondant for the "rays" of light in the background behind the golfer, to try and match the original logo. 

love the little golfer

With an hour left before delivery, I scrambled to fill, frost and decorate the actual chocolate cake! Where did the time go?! I'll tell you where it went. All to the super complicated logo! Argh! 

Chocolatey goodness

Anyway, the 10" square cake is 3 layers of Devil's Food Cake, filled with whipped dark chocolate ganache and iced with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. Because I was lazy to smoothen out the sides, I pressed chocolate shavings all around the cake (Woohoo! minimal effort and extra chocolate!) To border the top of the cake, I piped whipped dark chocolate ganache swirls and plopped on Ferrero Rocher chocolates on top of each swirl, for even more chocolate decadence. There is a reason I call this cake Chocolate Indulgence! The center of attention, the ESRC logo, of course, was placed right smack dab in the middle of the cake. 

I guess all the effort paid off because when I delivered the cake, everyone was blown away by the details, oohing and aahhing and taking pics, even before the cake was taken out of the box! An edible printed image would definitely not have gotten the same reaction or have had the same effect on the cake. 

Chocolate Indulgence cake with hand-cut fondant log

I'm so glad that I was given this challenge and am so happy with how the cake turned out! Feedback was that everyone enjoyed the cake (chocolate indulgence, indeed!!) and were impressed with the effort and detail. Good cake makes for happy people. And that makes me happy. Definitely worth the effort. :)