"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates" Cake

I was asked by the La Puente Board, the overseers of the homeless and disadvantaged programs, to make a cake for their fundraiser ball to support the Adalente program.  This program helps people get back on their feet by helping secure jobs, housing, food, schooling, and much more.  It is a very worthy cause so I said I would donate a cake.

The invitation to the ball was in Zebra print so that is the bottom cake.  The second tier is a gift box all glammed up.  The third tier is a gourmet box of chocolates.  

What I did first was to make different flavored chocolate truffles.  I made coffee/mocha, mint, cherries, almond, and chocolate.  I bought a candy mold and candy melts at Wal Mart and jumped into practicing.  I always look for You Tube tutorials and found several that show how to make filled candy chocolates.  This took me all day to do because my mold was small and it takes lots of patience. 

I made sure to taste! I didn't want to taste too much so that I would get sick of the candy.  As each batch was done I labeled them on a cookie sheet.  Then I glued nuts, coffee means, and painted edible dust to indicate what each one was.  The mint ones I swirled a mint green in the mold and then put the chocolate candy coating in and the affect was stunning.

I made the flowers out of gum paste and painted them with petal dust.  I glued stamens and pollen pods in the center to make them look more real.

The tiers of cake were made of decadent chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in the center.  One layer had raspberry filling.  I used chocolate ganache and chocolate butter cream frosting to crumb coat the cakes.  Yes, the box on top is chocolate cake with coffee/mocha chocolate ganache filling.  

This cake was expensive to make and took several weeks to complete.  I think it is a beautiful cake and it raised $800.00 for the Adalente program.  Those that bought the cake took it to the homeless shelter and shared it with the guests.  How often to they get fancy cake?  I thank God for making it all work out just right.  I also thank my husband, Don, for making the cake structure, moral support, and official taste tester!