So You're Saying You Want a Gorilla Cake...

When my friend Molly asked me to make a groom's cake for her wedding I thought to myself sure. No big deal. I did it for Chelsea's wedding how hard could Molly's groom's cake request be? Boy was I wrong. There was a collapse. There were tears. There was even a bloody nose.

Total. Baking. Disaster.

Molly's grand idea was to make a 3D gorilla cake wearing a Pitt State jersey. Luke is a pret-tay big fan, and played baseball there himself back in his golden years. I was actually really excited to attempt to make this cake since I'd never tried to make a 3D cake before.

My initial idea was to bake two separate 12 x 18" sheet cakes and then cut them into various sized circles to form the body of the gorilla. Why I didn't just use different sized circular cake pans to begin with I'm not sure. That would have been the smart thing to do...the easy thing to do. After baking, carving, stacking, and frosting the various carved circles I could tell there was going to be an eminent disaster. This cake was so unstable. If it did survive the initial day of baking I highly doubt it would have survived the trip back to KC so it is probably for the best that it collapsed about 2 minutes after the assembly was complete. 

The collapse was like a scene from a horror movie. Seriously. It was bloody. While I was simultaneously trying to save my dogs' lives (by keeping a pile of chocolate cake from plummeting to the floor), fighting back tears, and screaming for my mom...someone...anyone to come help me, I got a massive bloody nose. I mean honestly, what are the chances?!? I used to get them all the time when I was younger, but I haven't had one in years. I don't know if it was stress, dry weather, who knows! What I do know is I ended up with a kitchen floor covered in chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, blood, and two very happy dogs. Gross. 

After the incident, I decided to take a break from cake baking to make the rice krispie treats I was going to use to make the gorilla's head and limbs. This was much easier and relatively successful if I do say so myself.

I took a break for several hours to spend some time with the fam, and reconvened later that night...after I had settled down. This time I baked four separate cakes in circular pans and let them cool completely before attempting to stack, assemble, and carve. I stacked two of the four cakes that night, but had to wait until the next morning to add the final two layers. I've never claimed to be a night owl and baking until nearly 1:00 a.m. was too much! I think it was actually better that way because I froze the top two layers, and they were so easy to carve the next morning when they were cold. 

After the gorilla body was frosted with chocolate ganache
 (recipe at the end of this post), it was time to start
playing with fondant.

I've only worked with fondant a few times (and I've never actually made it myself...someday) so it is always a bit of an experiment, but I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I'm definitely not an expert, and there are a lot of seams showing, but considering the total mess I was left with after my first afternoon I'm pretty impressed with how this cake turned out. Just don't look too closely! ...and definitely don't look at this gorilla from behind...or the side....because he has a hunchback. Good enough right? I think the groom was impressed!

Chocolate Ganache

Two 12 oz. packages Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate pieces

1 pint heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup milk

Heat heavy cream in microwave for 3 minutes. Add chocolate pieces and mix until smooth. Stir in vanilla. When cooled to room temperature, add butter and shortening. Mix well. With an electric mixer add the powdered sugar. If needed, add the milk and mix to smooth consistency.