Remember how I thought 2022 would be the Year of Cake? And I would make a cake a month to practice? Well, I got as far as February before it turned into the Year of Stress instead (work started imploding in March, Toby was sick from April to September, Doc went to the hospital in August…yeah).
But I was finally feeling ready for cake again and made Altair a birthday cake over the weekend and wow was it fun to go all-out:
This is a “stump cake,” which I first saw on Pinterest alongside buche de noel decorating ideas. I didn’t want to attempt anything rolled and filled like a buche but I knew I could do layers. And decorating it meant I got to play with marzipan for the first time!
I got the raspberry mushroom cap idea from Martha Stewart and then threw the rest of the raspberries around the edge of the cake when I assembled it: 
I used a cake mix for the layers but fancied up the frosting with whipped bittersweet ganache; it was all good but a lot of chocolate for me. (And the nephew agreed that the frosting could be sweeter.) But what a fun project! Maybe I’ll try for more cakes in 2023.