Ho ho ho

A friend at work gave me a jar of homemade preserved cherries for Christmas present. Since I don’t really like to cook with cherries, I decided to make a cake to bring to our company’s Christmas BBQ. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t get enough of cherries, especially the red/white kind or American Cherries which i missed so much. I just don’t like to use cherries in cakes or any sort of cooking. Cherries are better eaten fresh according to my taste.

At first I wanted to make a Christmas pudding, but since I’m still in the middle of making macaroons for this year’s Christmas hampers, the extra long hours and effort to make a Christmas pudding is just not what I need right now. A simple chocolate blackforrest cake seems like the best solution, and I don’t have to stop by the shop, since I have all the ingredients handy.

To make it a little bit Christmas-sey, I decided to make it in the shape of a Christmas wreath with chocolate leaves, hollies, and a big red bow. I want my cake base to be soft, spongy, something quite light that will go nicely with the greasy, smoky taste of BBQ food. Therefore, I decided to use the cake base of a chocolate roulade that has a soufflé like texture.

Since this is the first time I have ever made a sugar bow, I decided to use ready made icing from coles. I have made one from chocolate modelling paste before, but never from an icing. Nor have I ever work with rolled icing decorations before. This will be an experiment for me. Oh how so exciting!

I coloured the icing red using the red liquid colouring. It turned out really good at first, despite my nails are all red as if I just killed someone. When I shaped the bow, the icing turns out to be very fragile and quite brittle. So I made another bow from the plain icing and decided to paint it red when it’s dry. It’s a little bit messier, but I reckon it worked out quite well, it even gives a slight shine to the bow.