TAJ MAHAL WEDDING CAKE

By

Evelyn Day of CHOCADYLLIC

Monday, October 13, 2014 

http://www.chocadyllic.co.uk

Sometimes life just seems to flow. It has often felt like that for me with Chocadyllic and I feel very grateful for it. So when Carmel commissioned me to make her a Taj Mahal wedding cake as I was planning to make a large showpiece cake based on the Brighton pavilion I thanked my lucky stars. This was a dream commission! A Chocadyllic Taj Mahal wedding cake! It seemed the next natural step after the Bandstand cake. And here I was being commissioned to make it!

However I began to realise life was not all that sweet. I had gratefully accepted the commission, excitedly even. Then as time started getting close to Carmel’s wedding day I started my research. Little did I know! OMG! It was a massive undertaking. Not that the Bandstand cake was a simple creation but this was a different kettle of erm, cake.

I'd estimated it would take me around four days of work, around 30 hours. Yeah, right. By the time it was finished and I had delivered and set up the cake in Stanmer house in Brighton I had spent over 52 hours on it. 

Saying that, I enjoyed almost all of the time I spent creating this cake based on the wonderful and magical mausoleum that is the Taj Mahal.

Day one: I started off by creating the panels of the main building. I wanted them to be quite thick and solid so I tempered masses amounts of white chocolate and poured it into trays to set. I carved the main panels from this - all 16 sides of the main building. When they were set I engraved the details of the panels and added the chocolate contrasting colours.

I then created the surrounding walls of the palace using the same technique. This was fun. My creativity was flowing. How lucky was I to be artistic with chocolate!

Day two: I started the day by blowing up a balloon for the main dome. Again I tempered loads of white chocolate and coated the balloon with it. So far so good!

Then I hit my first block – how was I going to make the domes for the four smaller turrets? Balloons were too big. I hunted through the kitchen, the cupboards and the fridge. Ah ha – a large egg was the perfect size. I created a mould using this marvelous food grade gel I have. And ta da I had the turret domes. I then created the walls of the turrets and the main dome using various techniques.

And so on to the next challenge, the four tall towers. These had even smaller domes on the top of them and they were ever so tall and slender. After hunting around the house I asked my eldest son if he had any marbles I could use (he’s 23 so chances were slim, but I was desperate!) Alas, he had none L.

But then, wait, I had an idea - I had some white fondant – I could make the domes using the fondant and then make moulds from them. It worked a treat!

This was a fab new technique. I used it to create the details on the top of all of the domes including the towers, turrets and main central dome.

Day three: So now I had all the main chocolate art pieces, I made the sponge. I baked a 10” square chocolate indulgence sponge that was 4” tall. I layered it together with my secret light-and-fluffy-not-too-sweet buttercream and dark chocolate ganache, carved it into shape, and covered it in thick white chocolate ganache.

And so the main construction began. I put the panels on the cake, the main dome and turrets on the central part of the cake. I covered the grounds of the palace in white chocolate ganache.

Day four: I made the gardens, the dark chocolate pond, the dark chocolate trees, and the milk chocolate paths. I piped the couple’s names and the wedding date in white chocolate at the front of the garden board.

                                                                   

I created one final piece of chocolate art – the main entrance doorway. I would have loved to make all the windows and doors this way – but time was no longer on my side. It was now 2am on the eve of the wedding day and therefore the day of delivery.

Finally it was ready. I boxed up the parts – the main cake, the tall towers and the panels for the garden walls, the masses amounts of chocolate shavings and my kit to put the finishing touches together at the venue.

Delivery day: Driving with a chocolate art cake is more stressful than you can imagine – it’s probably the most stressful part of cake creating and making! Fortunately I got it to the venue, Stanmer House, safely.

I glued on the garden panels and the tall towers with white chocolate. Then I added the chocolate shavings to the main large board creating the garden effect and finishing the cake display off. Phew it was done!





Mi Elfverson of www.truenorthvision.co.uk brought all her photographic equipment and the Taj Mahal cake had its very own professional photo shoot. Aren’t they just amazing photos!

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