Double Birthday Split Personality Cake. (March 2002)

Katherine asked me to do a cake for a double birthday party she was having at her house for 2 of her friends, a guy and a girl. She remembered the cake I did for my own 30th birthday and thought it might be nice to do a cake that was half black leather, and then half frilly flowery. (Apparently when she mentioned her idea to one of her other friends, s/he asked, "Which half is for which person?")

The black leather cake is very time consuming under normal circumstances, but fortunately I had made lots of extra metal studs and spikes and chains for the first cake, not knowing exactly how many I'd need. The chain is made of gumpaste. The black leather and the other silver things are fondant, the flowers are royal icing, and the rest is buttercream. I told Katherine ahead of time that everything was edible, but that the chain would taste terrible. So she told this to everyone at the party and they all immediately grabbed a piece to taste it. She said I was right; it tasted like plaster. Told ya so. :)

Problems: In the second picture, you can see where the black leather ripped a little right where it meets the flowery half. And the daisy lost a petal (they're very delicate). I was also a little worried about exactly what do to for the flower design, and I went with a basketweave in the end and that turned out well.