New Year, New Cake!

Today's cake is a Carnival-esque Meets Nautical Celebration Creation!

Whenever I'm asked to bake a cake (this time for a 30th) I always try something new, soooo... insert opportunity to play with 'bark'! The outside of the cake above is covered with candy melt bark which is super easy to melt and dye different colours.

★ To make the bark just follow the melting directions on the packet, I simmered mine in a bowl over boiling water on the stove but you can also zap it in the microwave.  

★ Lay out a piece of baking paper, then spread the chocolate over the paper using a knife, keeping it at least 2 inches from the edge of the paper.  

★ Place another sheet of baking paper the same size on top, then use a palette knife to gently smooth out any air bubbles and to make the bark as thin and even as possible. I think it's better if the edges of the candy is uneven as it makes the shards more dynamic later on!

★ Roll the baking paper/candy melts into a tube, keeping in mind the tighter you roll it the more curved your bark will be.

★ Pop it on a tray and into the fridge until it sets hard.

★ When you're ready to decorate unwrap the baking paper and discard the top layer of paper.  The unrolling process should break up the bark so you have lots of shards... the more imperfect and random the pieces the better in my opinion!

★ I used a buttercream frosting to ice the cake and then stuck the bark to that, alternating colours carnival tent style.

You can store the bark in a container and decorate your next cake in a flash Super-Homemaker-I-Just-Whipped-This-Up style.

★ Stroke of amazing cake genius!! ★ 

How sweet would it be to cover your cake with rainbow bark?!

I had the idea while editing my photo of making pretty rainbow pastel bark, so I edited the same photo in pastel colours to try the idea out. Haha imagine if baking was this easy - a few clicks and voila - new cake!  The rainbow bark would be easy to do, just melt different colours and swirl them on the baking paper before covering and setting.

Oo a few more clicks on my computer and I have a pink version of the cake too! Lol... online baking is wayy better for the waistline!

xx Camille Javal