Carpenter's Level Cake

Sorry I've been MIA this week, so many things going on, days are just flying by. 8weeks to Christmas.Did I just say that? Yes, that is right, 8 weeks.

Anyhow, last week I made a really fun cake, actually it was a pretty unusual cake. A Level Cake.Totally unromantic but I enjoyed making it anyhow. I hardly make any manly cakes and I was really tempted to put a fondant flower somewhere on the cake!

To make the cake I used 2   9x13 cake layers of  my velvet vanilla pound cake. To assemble the cake I used a  Chocolate Ganache Cream Cheese Buttercream(recipe follows)as filling, and outside of the cake was  frosted with Swiss buttercream and marshmallow fondant. All the details added to the cake were to match the existing level marked "JS".

More details about the cake:
Velvet Vanilla Pound Cake
Marshmallow Fondant
Chocolate Ganache Cream Cheese Buttercream
Swiss Buttercream
Red, Black, Electric Green food coloring
Textured woodgrain silicone mat
Silver Color Mist  by Wilton


Chocolate Ganache Cream Cheese Buttercream 
(icing held up pretty well under fondant, I kept the cake refrigerated until about 4 hours prior cake cutting)


1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, or if you prefer use milk chocolate chips.
1 cup  bittersweet chocolate chips, or you can use good quality dark chocolate as well.
2/3 cup heavy cream
2package  room temperature cream cheese
2stick room temperature butter
1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
1tblvanilla extract

• Heat heavy cream  until it is hot and bubbles are forming on the surface, pour over small pieces of chocolate, cover  and let stand for 2 minutes. When covering a bowl, first, place a piece of clean dry paper towel over and then place a plate or a lid on top. This helps to keep any water  from condensation dripping into the ganache. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.Let cool to room temperature.
• Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar, until smooth.
• Add room temperature butter and beat until smooth.
• Gradually add room temperature ganache, add vanilla extract, beat until combined and smooth. 
• Taste, if needed add more powdered sugar. 
• If you find that icing is too stiff, add 1tbl heavy cream and beat until smooth and well combined.
•  Personally don't like frosting that is overly sweet, so you may have to add more sugar based on your taste.
• This is one luscious frosting. You can frost the cake or cupcakes using this frosting.
• Cake need to be store in the refrigerator, let come to room temperature before serving.

I applied Swiss buttercream on top of the chocolate ganache cream cheese buttercream. It spreads much easier than cream cheese.

Top fondant strip.

I used wax paper to transfer white strip  onto the cake.

I covered the sides with wax paper to cover red fondant.

I sprayed top white strip with silver color mist by Wilton.

To decorate the cake board I used fondant. I had lots of red fondant left, so I decided to add green  color and make brown fondant,  I used a silicone wood grain textured mat to achieve the look of wood planks.