my friend kaaren throws the best parties. always guaranteed a good time. this past saturday was no exception... mexican theme hallowe'en party. one of the first costumes we thought of was the mexican bee from the simpsons, but unfortunatly we couldn't find it anywhere and i wasn't about to make one. while out shopping for her own costume, my sister picked up a very large sombrero. derek already had a sarape and i painted his face like a sugar skull. i, myself, went as frida kahlo.
as a gift for our gracious host i laboured over my counter making a sugar skull cake. i used the best chocolate cake recipe i have (i'll post that another time) in my betty crocker dome cake pan. i'm still not fully convinced about the pan though, it tends to dry out the outer layer of the cake when you've got the centre filled. inbetween the layers i used some dulce de leche. i carved the skull shape with a big serrated knife and then covered the whole thing in a very thin layer of buttercream, called a crumbcoat.
then more buttercream, and fondant rolled out smooth.
last, and most labour intensive... the decorating with royal icing.
