A Racoon Beach Ruffled Wedding Anniversary Cake

A Racoon Beach Ruffled Anniversary Cake

The Story behind this Cake

This cute raccoon was designed for a couple's 1st wedding anniversary. They had gotten married on a beach in Thailand, thus the inspiration for the "waves". I was a little puzzled on the reason for the raccoon as there are no raccoon on Koh Samui beach! It was explained to me that in Thai, "I love you" is "Ruk Khun", sounding like raccoon in English. How cute!

I initially struggled with the idea of creating a raccoon, mainly because there's no raccoons in Australia so I had no reference point. But with the aid of the Internet, I labored over creating a cute and friendly raccoon out of 100% fondant mixed with tylose.
A little black fondant mixed with white fondant made the grey for the body and limbs. The head was hand rolled into a oval shape and the body was a triangular/cone shaped piece. The head and body connected using a skewer to ensure the model stayed in place during transport along with royal icing at the bottom of the raccoon. Then the hands and feet were added along with the eyes, snout, nose and mouth.

I try to steer clear from buying too many tools, however, certain shapes just need a cutter. The heart was cut out using a heart cookie cutter and the embossing with a cookie embosser.

The cake was requested to be dark chocolate mud which was iced in chocolate ganache and covered with fondant. The ruffled waves are hand cut fondant and secured on using royal icing. The ruffled waves were inspired by Googling ruffled wave cakes.
For the "sand", I have used almond meal. It was certainly a delight to see the couple's reaction when the cake was delivered! It is always such a heart warming experience to see the smiles on people's faces! I wish them a very Happy Anniversary and years of happiness together. It was a privilege to be a part of their special day!

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Mud Cake by Lady Sucre

Click to download the recipe