Well, here is my 2nd cake from my trip to Chicago where I attended Bronwen Weber’s class at the French Pastry School.  Bronwen first made this cake for a chef’s conference…it was a chef’s head on a plate!   This cake was quite tricky since almost all of the face design is done by using your hands to sculpt the fondant covered cake into a realistic face before the fondant dries on you.  I hope you enjoy seeing the photos from the class and realize just how much of a cake genius Bronwen really is!

The cake is started by stacking layer upon layer of cake & buttercream and then attempting to carve out the basic features of the face.

These are the two carved heads…the first one is Bronwen’s & the second is mine.

Next you cover the head in buttercream.

After covering it in buttercream, you cover the whole cake in fondant and quickly, but carefully, shape the face with your hands.  Detail is added with gum paste tools.

Here is my head after I finished the face sculpting part…then it was onto the details, like hair, eyebrows, sideburns, etc.  The hair accents were made out of modeling chocolate and the tie and jacket were made out of fondant.  Sadly, we ran out of time and didn’t get to make the chef’s hat, but it was an interesting technique.  Since the hat was made out of rice paper, it was completely edible (not that I would want to eat it!)

And here is me with my chef’s head!

Tags: Bronwen Weber, cake, chef's head, fondant, French Pastry School, modeling chocolate