Last week I made a salamander themed cake. Yes, i know what you are all thinking, "Who would order a Salamander cake?" Well, my piano teacher's company Speak Music Conservatory was hosting a concert for a band, Fresc, who played Catalan music. They wanted me to make a cake based on the salamander from the mosaic park in Barcelona. This Salamander was created  by the famous artist Gaudi.

When I first saw the salamander I thought that the word gaudy originated from this architect's name, because his salamander was bright, flashy and colorful.  When I googled about it, I realized that wasn't correct. My teacher was concerned that I couldn't do it at first, so she asked me to make a simpler version. However, I wanted to create the mosaic finish and bright colors to do justice to the original salamander.

I made the salamander out of rice cereal treats, covered it with fondant, scored the mosaic patter and hand painted the vivid colors. I had to paint it. I had to test out a couple methods until I found the one that worked best. After 4 hours of detailed work and careful painting, I was able to pull off the salamander. My dad said it looked better than the real thing. Of course he will say it as he is my dad. I knew I could improve it a lot, but I was pleased with what I created!

Finally, I made a 3 tier peacock cake! I have always wanted to make a peacock cake. Normally, when I am bored and on the internet, I search up "Amazing Cakes". Ever since I came across a peacock cake, I have always wanted to make one. It finally happened! Madhavi Aunty helped me fulfill my wish. She ordered a peacock cake for her daughter, Radhika, for her sweet sixteen. Thank you Madhavi Aunty and Radhika! 
I had to do so much work for this cake, and I enjoyed every second of it. The peacock body was made out of rice crispies, and it took me several tries to get it right. The process to make the peacock feathers took a very long time. I decided to make trial feathers with different colors, and I had my parents choose their favorite feathers. This way, I could decide which color combinations looked better together. You can find pictures of them in the slideshow below. After the feather was chosen, I had to make replicas of it. Getting the feathers to look almost identical was somewhat hard, but I was up for the challenge. Luckily, on Thursday I had a snow day, and this allowed me to start and finish the feathers of the cake. I was really pleased with the end result of the feathers.

My favorite part of the process came next, the assembly. What I enjoy about it is that you start to see the cake come alive. The assembly made the peacock look realistic. I forced my dad to record the assembly of the feathers; the video is underneath the slideshow. Don’t look at the video and say “Wow! How did she assemble the cake in a minute?” I didn’t. Just the feather assembly took me more than 30 min. The whole cake took me about 20 hours to complete, without including the time I spent on research. 

Cake Fun Facts:

Weight (Heaviest Cake so far): 20lbs

Height (second tallest cake so far): 16 in

Cost (most expensive cake so far) - $200

First time delivering and setting up the cake at the venue

First time making a 3 tier cake – 10”, 8”, 6” 

Hope you had a great party Radhika! Happy Birthday!