LA Lakers Kobe Bryant Cake

The story behind this cake goes something like this...

Wednesday Morning @ Work
G: "Darl I know this is late notice but could you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a Lakers cake for A's birthday?" (G is my bestie & A's awesome gf)
R: "Sure when do you need it by?"
G: "This weekend"
R: O.o "But I'm going away for the weekend.. leaving Friday and I'm taking the kids for a movie on Thursday..."
G: "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"

Wednesday late evening
R: "YOU TOTALLY OWE ME! .. buggered as .. come pick it up tomorrow x"
G: "You're the best!"

Thursday afternoon after work

R: :)
G: :D
A: :D

Crazy huh? But boy, I felt on top of the world being able to pull it off and it was worth all the effort once I saw their faces and reactions at the sight of that cake. I think that is exactly the moment I savour most as a baker (next to when the first bite is eaten, of course!), the moment where their eyes light up & pure bliss hits their faces when they see the edible creation infront of them, you can almost see them jumping around inside like a little kid again... such joy! :) That's why I love baking so much, it enables me to bring so much love and happiness to those around me by allowing me to share these special moments & memories with them through my food and cakes.

To make this cake, I used 2 x the recipe here, baked in 2 rectangular pans. To shape the cake, I cut out sleeves for "arms" in the top 2 corners of each rectangular slab cake.

The frosting was one that I had previously made here, the only difference is I added some Frangelico to the frosting too... similarly, before I sandwiched the two rectanglar slabs together with frosting, I brushed/soaked them with more Frangelico. Besides the booze factor, it also helped to keep the cake moist :)

The cake was covered with Orchard's White Icing (a premade fondant you can get from Woolworths or Coles) and I also used Wilton's coloured pastes to colour the fondant.

Tip - instead of using icing sugar, use cornflour whilst rolling out the fondant so it doesn't stick to the surface or your hands.

Happy 24th Birthday A, hope you had a great one! x