I love, love, love me some Bloggess, y’all, so when I found out that she’d added a stop in North Carolina to her book tour, I *had* to go, even if it was over two hours away.
And then I thought – you know, wouldn’t it be fun to bring cake? And to try my hand at making something fun for the topper?
I’ve never made an edible taxidermied mouse before…
There were at least a hundred people there. There was spontaneous applause as I brought the cake up and put it on the table up front. Here’s the inspiration for the cake:
And a closeup of Mr. Hamlet von Schnizzle (sp):
The details:
Cake is Chocolate Buttermilk Cake from Maida Heatter’s Chocolate cookbook. Filled and frosted with chocolate ganache and some strawberry puree I made the other day. [ Note: never, ever make this cake again. The taste was wonderful, but the texture was pure crumb! Cutting it caused it to explode into a pile of crumbs. Tasty crumbs, but still. Horrible to try and serve without getting cake everywhere. Sorry, Books a Million. ]
Hamlet is made of marzipan rolled in coconut, his hands, feet, teeth and ears are gumpaste. The eyes are redhots, and the cape (thank you for the great idea, George!) is a fruit rollup enhanced with some sparkle dust. The metal pole up his butt holding him upright (marzipan mice are rather topheavy) is a flower nail. 🙂 I tried to make the ruff out of marzipan, but it was big and clunky so I left it off.
This was tremendous fun, and I’m so glad I got to meet Jenny and bring a smile to her face! I had slipped away during part of her Q&A to go pick up a copy of the book so I could have it signed, which is of course when she said something about the cake, so I missed my big moment, but it was fine. Great crowd!
And I got to listen to the audiobook on the way there and back with my friend Kelley, which was hilarious and there’s enough added content and fun in it that I highly recommend it, even if you already have the book. Seriously.
May 17, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Thanks for making the cake and helping the rest of us feel inadequate. ~grin~ Just kidding. It was a beautiful, kind gesture that I know Ms. Lawson genuinely appreciated.
I was compelled to take a picture of it. I’m one of those people that loves to cook and especially loves to cook for other people. Despite that, though, nothing I cook ever looks pretty enough for someone else to want a picture of it as a keepsake. Thank you for helping create and share in this memory with the rest of us.
I don’t mind repeating myself: You. Are. Awesome!
May 17, 2012 at 10:41 pm
*blush* Thank you! It was rather a spur-of-the-moment thing, and I’m sure my husband thought I was nuts…
Me: Chocolate weasels!
Him: ??
Me: I need to make them! Who do we know who has a taxidermied weasel I can borrow? Or a mouse would do.
(this query also appeared on FB. I received one offer of live ferrets (sadly, too far away), and one for a stuffed mouse too late to be useful)
This was so much fun.
May 18, 2012 at 9:35 am
I was there last night too and the cake was so awesome! I’m sure Jenny appreciated it. I took a pic also. I have to say that last night was so much fun, all the metal chickens, your cake, and Copernicus there with The Bloggess just makes for a perfect evening with all of us misfits. I was so excited she signed my chicken!
December 18, 2013 at 6:29 pm
#1 I LOVE her. #2 Beyond jealous of you meeting her. #3 Holy awesomeness on the cake!
January 24, 2014 at 10:35 am
Wow, that mouse is REALLY impressive! The cake looks delicious, too.