Inspiration Series

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This weekend I got to create a smash cake for one of my best friends adorable 1 yr old, Ndiahna. She had chosen the theme of Black Panther ("African Royalty") for the party and gave me free reign to create a mini cake that worked within the theme. I saw Black Panther back in February on it's release date (I want to see it again!) and was so in love with all of the patterns, textures, and vibrant colors in the costumes. So naturally, the first thing to cross my mind as a point of inspiration was one of the outfits worn by the characters Nakia and Shuri. It seemed like a natural starting point.

After doing some research I was reminded of one of my favorite outfits from the whole movie, Nakia's green dress from the casino fight scene. As you can probably tell, I decided to use this dress as a source on inspiration. See below for a side by side.

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black panther costume.jpg

I really wanted this cake to feel regal with deep jewel tones and radiant golds, so I had to figure out what medium would allow me to get those colors..especially since I refuse to use fondant. 

I decided to cover the cake in a white chocolate ganache to get the same kind of smooth surface and painted the green with edible paints. I then used edible fabric sheets to create the stripes, edible gold leaf, and wafer paper painted with gold lustre dust for the topper. Really love how it turned out! 

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I think Ndi enjoyed it too :)

A lesson learned for next time, buttercream or whipped ganache might be easier for a baby to actually smash. We had to help her out a little bit haha.