The Making : Poker table with chips cake

Well hello helloww! In this post I will be showing you how I made an all time favourite game edible! Yes, it's a deck of cards on a poker table complete with poker chips. The cake is actually a chocolate moist cake with chocolate ganache on top so the chocolatey colour was a great background for the "table' itself and I didn't have to cover the entire cake with fondant. 

The lovely chocolate moist cake was filled with lovely chocolate mousse. Trust me this mousse was divine.

Once sandwiched you could see the chocolate mousse overflowing to the sides and it was a glorious sight!

I've always loved pouring ganache unto a cake. It's like watching hot lava spread out, smoldering the cake and getting into every tiny cake crevice that it could find. It's fascinating to watch really. Plus the smell is intoxicating especially if you are a chocolate lover!

Covering a cake with ganache is like painting your nails really. First you need to have a base coat, let it 'dry' or in this case 'set' and then pour a top coat to give it a lovely smooth shine.

While waiting for the ganache to set, I started on the cards. First I took a cake board which is the same size as the cake to act as a template. Then I measured the approximate size of the cards based on that template and then cut them out. I also made sure that when I arranged the cards, I had the spacings between the cards just right.

For the deck of cards in the middle, I just cut out a block of fondant and traced some lines along the sides to create an illusion of many cards.

Next up, I needed to create the card symbols. You can actually cut them yourself but I used my trusty 'cards' patchwork cutters to help me. It was much easier and faster. If you are interested in pre-ordering them, please email me :)

This is how it looked like once I stuck them on to the cards. I drew on the numbers and letters using a gourmet writer pen which had edible ink in it. I can tell you it was a challenge working on a small piece of fondant, sticking and drawing on the small details. I should get a magnifying glass next time!

Next I drew by hand the details for the back of the deck of cards. A little bit of concentration was needed here. Then I arranged it on the template to get a feel of how it was going to look like on the cake.

The tiny poker chips was relatively easier to make. I just had to roll out some black and red fondant and cut out some round circles using a small round cutter. Then I traced some lines into the inner circle to make it look realistic.

The poker chips on the side of the cake was fondant cut out using a large round cutter. I coloured in the details using the gourmet writer pen and let it dry.

The green 'felt' material for the 'table' was made using fondant. I had to get the green colour just right by adding some yellow to some ready made blue fondant. I then rolled it out and cut out a circle slightly smaller than the cake diameter itself. After that I simply laid it on the top of the cake.

The borders were made using chocolate fondant and pressed into shape using a bead maker mold.

The final arrangement is always my favourite thing to do. That's when I see all the work that I have made so meticulously before, come into place.

A closer look at the details.

Finally the message was made and the cake is complete. Till the next challenge! Now let's go have a game. Don't forget to put your poker face on!