Eight demos in one day is tiring! Let me tell you.

Today was Pro Start Day and I did this cute little tree stump cake design as my demonstration for the high schoolers – we had OVER 300 today by the way! So I did my demo eight different times. I started out with just a six inch, two layer cake with a one layer, three inch cake against it all covered in brown buttercream! I baked the cakes on Tuesday. Thursday, Holly made a WHOLE bunch of brown buttercream for me while I made my meringue and piped them into my mushroom shapes.

While my meringues were baking, I melted some chocolate in the microwave and poured it out onto parchment and spread it out with a spatula. Once it was completely cooled, I broke it into shards to make the bark for my cake!

Chef Jess colored some coconut shavings green with a little liquid food coloring to make “moss”, and I crushed up some graham crackers and threw in a little cocoa powder to make “dirt” for my cake!

During my demonstration, I showed each group how to smooth ice the cake using a spatula, a bench scraper, and Viva paper towels. I then attached my bark to my cake with a little leftover buttercream. Once my whole cake was covered in bark. I demonstrated how to make the meringues, as stated in the recipe above, as well as telling the audience the simple meringue recipe. Everyone LOVED the torch! It was my WOW factor for the demo. I also showed them how to make a similar mushroom without a torch – sifting cocoa powder lightly over the top instead of torching it to give it the same kind of dirty mushroom effect!

I then placed some mushrooms onto my tree stumps; then, I told them how we made the moss and dirt. I then decorated with the moss and dirt, and sprinkled the whole cake with a little powdered sugar to resemble snow! I love this cake, and it is so simple and easy. I really think that everyone enjoyed it, too, and several people mentioned making it at home!

Today was a great success for me! I feel much more comfortable demoing in front of people after doing it eight whole times today. I may even incorporate this design into my three tier wedding cake for advanced baking!

ABC.