First for the pattern I searched my house. It wasn't to hard since I have drapes, pillows, table linens, wrapping paper and craft supplies that have the damask shape on it. But I could not find one that was simple enough and small enough to reproduce. So I took the picture in the book and placed it on my scanner and made a copy, then I took a layer of the cake and did a little photo-shopping and then made multiple copies. In the book they recommend wax paper over the image. I taped the images to the back of sheet pans and then covered with wax paper.
The shapes were made by piping royal icing around the edges and then letting them dry a little.
And then filling with royal icing flooding. I should have made the flooding a little more fluid, it didn't settle perfectly. I then let them dry for a few days until nice and hard.
The cake is chocolate with a layer of Chocolate Bavarian cream and a layer of Bavarian cream. (that is the best part). Covered it with Almond-Vanilla Buttercream and then colored the fondant and covered the cake. In the book Wendy Kromer recommended that you use a artist pallet knife to lift the shapes from the wax paper. The artist knife was perfect! It was thin enough that it could slide under the royal icing pieces and none of them cracked. A great tool to add to my collection. The cake was made in a 9x9x3 square pan and a 9x9x2 square pan. I should have measured the damask and realized that the cake would be to short and not wide enough. Oh well, I made do and I like how it turned out.
and the inspiration cake by Wendy Kromer also found on page 187 in the Wedding cake book
Now which one will I make next?
Claudine
