First Paid Cake

Whodda thunk it? Me, who could barely turn on the oven 15 months ago, would be paid to bake and decorate a cake? I certainly wouldn’t have believed it.

And yet, earlier this week, I was contacted by a lady who heard i could probably do it…that is, bake and decorate a cake for her mother’s birthday. I can’t say no. I just can’t. The trouble was, she wanted it to be a sheet cake, but coconut. Coconut cake, most often, is round and layered. And there’s the icing, which is chock full of, well, coconut. So that makes the decorating of it a wee bit difficult. I did my best.

I baked off a coconut flavored cake and iced it with a White Chocolate and Cream Cheese Buttercream that I amped up with a little coconut extract and coconut flake. I reserved some icing and didn’t add the flake, so that I could pipe a border.

Her only request was that it have a rose, in the mauve/pinkish red frame of mind. So I made a rose and bud out of fondant. And then, because there were so many pretty things in the garden, I added them to this cake instead of more icing adornment. I added leaves from a blackberry plant, Purple basil (It was gorgeous) and some unripe baby grapes and blackberries. The pictures don’t do much for it – I was in a hurry and using my Mom’s camera that doesn’t behave like I want it to. I think you get the idea though.

Thoughts? Other than the writing is a little wanky looking? (It wasn’t QUITE as wonky in person, it was 3D and curved on fondant ribbon, just one side ended up more curved than the other.) Pros/Cons to the fresh greenery other than wilting? And what, if I may be so bold, is one expected to pay for a cake such as this? Thanks everyone!