Chili Pepper Cake

This weekend I made a cake a for a friend's 34th birthday.  When his wife, Laci, told me we were going to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, I couldn't decide whether to make a chili pepper or sombrero cake.  The thought of making a vegetable out of cake was too exciting to pass up, so a red chili pepper it was!  I thought it would be fun to show the blog world how I did it.

This design took three 9" cakes.  I baked 4 because I wasn't sure 3 would be enough, but it ended up working out perfectly!  It's important to level your cakes (cut the rounded tops off) when you're stacking or carving a cake.  Keep a bowl for "cake scraps" as you go - this is Travis' favorite part.

Next I made a cut-out for the shape of the chili and a "working board" to lay the cake out on.

Place your cut-out on the first layer of cake and cut through.  Ice the top of this layer, then stack on the remaining cake.

At this point, put the cake in the refrigerator for about an hour so it stiffens up enough to carve easily.  If you're doing a cake similar to this at home...make sure you carve slooooowly.  It's much easier to take more cake off than put it back on!  Once you're finished carving the shape, put a thin layer of buttercream on the entire outside and refrigerate for another few hours to let that set.

At this point, Travis and I decided it looked more like a huge talon.  :)  I like to do a second thin layer of frosting on the outside of the cake when I'm covering it with fondant (that way if someone doesn't want to eat the fondant, they can peel it off and still have some frosting).

Then I mixed up some red fondant, rolled it out on the counter, and then covered the chili pepper.  This is also the point when I trimmed the board to the exact shape of the pepper.

After refrigerating for another few hours to let the cake/fondant firm up, I mixed up some green and added the chili's top, using a dowel to secure the stem.

Then the cake spent another short stint in the refrigerator while I prepared the presentation board and made a few little accent foods (a few jalapenos and some garlic).  I decided to use yellow fondant around the chili and think it turned out nicely!

 We ate at a great little Mexican restaurant in Somerville - Jose's.  Deeeeelicious!

Happy birthday Christian!!