Jan

Disco Ball Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake that mimicked a disco ball. It needed to be the approximate size of a soccer ball and have layers of vanilla and chocolate cake inside. A round cake that ended up being a learning experience from start to finish.

I was sure that doing this cake for me was what it must be like for those poor cake decorators that are invited to do the cake competitions on the food network. You know, the ones that might not have had time to do a practice run of their cake design before they arrived, but are sure with their experience and design ideas their cake will not only work but should also win the prize. Then however after the start of the competition they realize that the reality is things are simply not going as planned and a domino effect is beginning to take place. With the first disaster affecting the next part of the plan and so on and so on. This is how this cake felt to me as I worked my way through challenge after challenge.

I originally thought it would be just as easy and maybe safer to hang the disco cake than to have it sit on a table. I pictured one good unintentional hit to the serving table and there would go the poor servers chasing the cake across the dance floor. My plans for cake hanging lacked a true understanding of the weight of the cake and the strength of the Styrofoam expected to hold it. In hind sight, I still stand by that first idea to have it hang but would engineer the cake very differently this time around.