Giraffe Cake

Here’s a quick roundup from March (I don’t know how I fell so far behind, but here we are). My parents came to visit, for the first time in exactly five years, and it was great having them over! My mother and I went to see a mask exhibit at the Parman Library – it was nice, albeit a bit underwhelming. I think I would have liked more explanations about the various types of masks on display; they did have a nice variety, though, with masks from 3 continents!

We also took a little day trip to Seguin, where we saw the world’s largest pecan (also a bit underwhelming). My parents, who are francophone, still cannot pronounce Seguin the way the locals do – as you can see, I find that hilarious.

Finally, it was the Fox’s birthday, and he said that he wanted a giraffe cake. My cake-decorating skills are limited, so after much googling, I settled on this method, and it was a success! I made a chocolate sheet cake from Baking Illustrated along with this vanilla crusting buttercream, reducing the amount of powdered sugar from 4 pounds to less than 2 ½ pounds (I used a bit less liquid to compensate, and it was definitely sweet enough for me). I used Tootsie Rolls for the spots and other details, and the cake board is simply a cardboard box that I deconstructed and covered in extra-wide aluminum foil. This was a hit!