Sunday, April 19, 2009

Chicken Love: The Cake

Strange name for a post, yes? Well to give you a little background, my son Yusuf is now the very happy husband of a very gifted children's book illustrator who goes by the nickname of Chicken Girl. They got married in a private ceremony this past Wednesday on a beach in St. Thomas, and had the reception here in NY yesterday. Jannie, my new daughter-in-law, nicknamed him Math Boy, as he was working for his PhD in Mathematics when they met, although he has since completed it (my son the doctor!).

Anyway, Chicken Girl and Math Boy met almost exactly 5 years ago on the corner of Houston and Mulberry Streets, and on their third anniversary of meeting, she created this illustration as an anniversary card for him. When we were discussing the details for the reception nearly a year ago, she said that the only thing that she really wanted was a chicken cake. Although I had not done any cake decorating in many, many years, and even then just a bit of dabbling, I offered to take on the challenge. I decided to use her own artwork, which I found on her blog, as inspiration for the cake. And so began several months of studying and practicing fondant cake decorating, all self-directed, using books, TV shows, the web, and a terrific DVD. This is the result:

Here's a better look at the chickens. I think if you click on it you can see it bigger:
These are pictures I took while it was still in my apartment, and not very good ones at that. When we set it up at the restaurant, I put some Belgian chocolate seashells on the sand to make it look, well, more beach-y. Here's a picture of them cutting the cake:

I had a lot of fun making this, but the very best part of it was seeing Jannie's face when she saw it for the first time yesterday. She agreed from the start to let me surprise her. She had absolutely no idea what I was doing, except that it involved chickens, and her trust in me touched my heart. I am indeed a very blessed and happy mother, and mother-in-law!

14 comments:

i {heart} papers said...

That's a great picture of them!

Meredith said...

I had NO idea you had such skills!!!! The cake came out amazing!!! and what an adorable couple they are!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

OMG! That is too awesome. Way to go, you really rocked that chicken cake.

Kendra said...

What a great cake & a great story! It looks liek they were having a wonderful time!

Jannie aka Chickengirl said...

What can I say...how lucky am I to get a mother-in-law that is willing to make a chicken cake!!! Words really can't express how much this incredible cake means to me. Thank you and I love you!

Lori said...

This is fabulous, Carolyn! What a special gift for your son and your new daughter-in-law!

myra said...

Wow! That is fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Amazing. I am sure Jannie was estatic.

- childhood friend of jannie's

Wee Hen said...

I'm a fan of Jannie's work, and your cake interpretation is sooooo clever! Well done! :) What a sweet and crafty MIL you are.

Julie said...

Wow -- what a wonderful gift -- both your talent, and the cake! I follow Jannie's blog and love seeing her art (now your art) in this new, edible form! Beautiful cake.

Julie
Ottawa, ON

shawn said...

I found your blog through Chicken Girl's blog. I must say you are soooo talented! I gasped when I saw that chicken wedding cake. It is INCREDIBLE!!! I can only imagine how excited and happy Jannie was to see that. You caught her artwork so well!!!

Scott said...

Wow! You must have practiced a lot! Fondant takes some skill to work with that successfully. I've used it for years and am still learning.

ADORABLE!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely adorable chicken cake! Great job.

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

Anonymous said...

Absolutely beautiful!!! You did a wonderful job on the chickens and I'm sure you made "Chicken Girl" the happiest Daughter-in-Law on the face of the earth on her special day.