This sea swim cake was designed to be for a hot day, that means, nothing that will melt or perish from the heat: no whipped cream, no buttercream, no chocolate top, no creamy filling, etc.
The cake is a simple Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba) chocolate cake adapted to a tall cake tin. The cake was covered with a chocolate ganache to make it flat and smooth and facilitate the use of fondant icing. Added to the decoration are coral reef made of macaroon paste and an open macaroon for a clam.
The macaroon and the clam require added work and although it is not that hard, it is technical. Feel free to replace by lollies or biscuits and adapt the scene. I will upload a recipe.
Serves 15 easily
Ingredients:
You will need a cake base (or you can make one out of thick cardboard and aluminium foil) of diameter slightly larger than your mould.
For the cake
- 150 g of white or caster sugar
- 100 g of plain flour
- 2/3 sachet of raising powder or 2/3 teaspoon if using it from the box
- 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (if you are using a 70% cocoa chocolate, decrease the chocolate quantity to 120 g, it would be too strong for children).
- 120 g of butter
- 4 egg yolks and 4 egg white beaten to snow.
For the chocolate ganache:
- 200 g of dark cooking chocolate
- 200 g of cream
For the decoration:
- 1 kg of fondant icing (from the supermarket)
- corn flour
- Food colorants + latex or nitrile food prep gloves
- Pearls and other decorations
- 1 macaroon and some of the dough piped in the shape of coral on baking paper – alternatively use lollies and biscuits.
Method
The cake:
- Heat the oven to 180 °Celsius.
- Butter and flour a tin, or butter and line.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together.
- Mix in the sugar, then the egg yolks one at the time.
- Add the flour and raising powder together, being careful not to create any lumps.
- Fold in the egg whites (in snow) gently.
- Transfer to the baking tin and insert in the oven.
- Cook until dry in the center (20 to 30 min depending on ovens and thickness of the cake in the tin)
- Remove from the oven, transfer onto a cooling rack.
- When the cake is cold, cut the bumpy top part using large bread knife: Use as delineation the top edge of the sides and follow this to remove the “bump”. Don’t throw it away, it will make a great dessert with a little bit of the ganache!
The chocolate ganache:
- Cut the chocolate in small pieces (use a strong knife and make pieces of about 1/2 cm width.
- Bring the cream to boil in a saucepan, remove when the first bubbles appear and pour over the chocolate pieces.
- Allow to stand for a couple of minutes, then mix until smooth. Place in the fridge to firm up. To use it you want it peanut butter consistency, if it got too hard, allow to stand at room temperature.
Assembling:
- Place the cake on the cake base. Some people recommend using a dollop of the ganache to secure the cake to the cake base.
- Place a few spoons of chocolate ganache over the top and with a dough scraper, spread evenly over the cake (no need to refine your work at this stage). Place one spoon of ganache on your scraper and with movements from the bottom of the cake to the top, roughly spread on the vertical side.
- Clean you dough scraper . If you have a cake wheel, it is time to use it! Hold the scraper at 45 degrees angle from the cake. Turn the cake keeping your hand position. This will spread evenly the ganache along the edge. Reset and repeat as needed. If it is getting messy and the ganache is getting soft, place the cake in the fridge for ten minutes and resume.
- In the end you want the ganache (you will have extra) neatly spread around the cake and on the top creating a flat top and a flat side. Place in the fridge to harden.
- Prepare your fondant icing. You want to make 3 types of blue and keep a little of white. Break apart 1/2 of the fondant in a ball, use the food colorants adding blue and possibly a touch of green to get the colour of your choice. This piece of fondant will be used to cover the whole cake. Break the other ball in three pieces. Set one aside, this will be your white one, and colour the other two.
Tip: Use gloves or your hands will get coloured
Tip: Use cornflour to present the fondant sticking top much or sticking on things, especially if you add a fair bit of liquid food colouring. Â
Tip: Cover the fondant you don’t need with cell wrap, it tends to dry very easily and cannot be used if dry. -  Using a rolling-pin, corn flour and either a rolling matt or baking paper, roll the large ball to a thickness of 3-4 mm. It will be large enough to cover the top and skirt the sides. Transfer gently over the cake. With the palms of your hands apply the fondant on the sides. You should not have to fold it, rather extend it slightly. Cut the extra at the bottom.
- Roll the other icing fondant pieces. Using a glass, cookie cutter or any other items to cut pieces to make the tiles for the waves on the side. The waves on the top are simply cur with a sharp knife randomly.
- Before applying a piece of icing fondant on another one, dampen the area with your finger or with a kitchen brush.
- Complete the decoration to your taste.
- Keep the cake in a cool area until you need it. The cake can be left out for a few hours before serving if required.
