Sweet Sixteen: "Turquoise" & Zebra!

Here's the latest cake I made (among an array of tasty cupcakes of which I cannot take credit for.)  This wasn't as horrifyingly difficult as I had originally anticipated.  The ribbon that the bow is made from on top was originally purchased in case I botched the chocolate print around the bottom!  The following is a mini how-to:

The first thing I always do is make the flowers and for a couple reasons: 1) royal icing takes time to set and dry 2) the keep for a LONG time, so it's a good thing to make ahead and get out of the way.

For this cake, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do until I did it.  But I did know that I wanted to use white flowers, so my options (as they came to mind then) were roses, lilies and daisies.  I chose not to do the daisies because they never seem to turn out looking elegant...

(Check out this link for a bunch of how-tos on royal icing flowers and other decorations.  The lilies and roses are both on page 3.)

The day before the party, I baked the cakes and built the tiers.

It just always happens that I remember to take a picture at the same point in icing...

Both tiers were half chocolate and half red velvet.  I used white icing to torte purely for effect.

As you might notice, there are a lot of "holes" in the icing.  This is because I mixed the icing so much in the machine while trying to get the right color.  I realized just as I was about to add food coloring that I couldn't picture the difference between turquoise and teal.  The worst part about it is that I was an art kid in school...

Anyway.  The next thing I had to do (which began the morning of the party) was to make the zebra print border out of modeling chocolate.  I really thought this process was going to end in sweat, blood and tears.  But, alas!  It worked.

To make modeling chocolate, you melt about 10 oz. chocolate or candy wafers (always at half power) in the microwave, then add about 1/3 cup light corn syrup.  Stir until it all sticks together in a sort of ball.  Then pour this out onto a cookie sheet covered in plastic wrap and spread thin to about a 1/2 inch.  Let it set overnight or in the fridge for a couple of hours.  When your ready to work with it, mold it in your hands until it becomes consistent and malleable.  (I'm going to be pissed if I already typed all of this out in another post.)  Make sure your hands and surface that you will be working on is good and greased up with shortening.

As for how I did the zebra print--I got lucky.  That's all I'm giving ya for know.

It took two strips to make it around, but it worked out pretty painlessly.

After this part, I just started to wing it.  I used a ball border, which I never really use, because I wanted to match the invitation as best I could.

Then I cut out a "16" with my Cricut machine and started to throw flowers on.  I had so many left over that I brought them with me to the party and threw them on the bottom tier in an attempt to hide the fugly base.  (This can be seen in the first photo.)

Then I made up a way to make the bow and plopped it on top.  Ta-da!  If it weren't so grotesque to say "I pulled this cake out of my ass," I would totally use the term here.  But I'm proud of it!  This cake ended up looking so much better than what I had initially drawn up simply by switching around some borders and adding flowers and a bow.

As always, let me know what you think and leave any constructive criticism that I can use in the future!  If it's just mean, then NO CAKE FOR YOU!