I was asked to make a simple "congratulations" cake for an office party last week, and the flavor and design were left to my discretion. I decided to revisit my new carrot cake recipe since I had gotten some great reviews for Dave's 40th birthday golf cake last month (thanks, Heather!).
[Hot tip: I adapted Canadian Living magazine's carrot cake recipe by omitting the nuts and substituting 1 cup unsweetened applesauce for the canned crushed pineapple. Andrew calls it "vegetable cake" but I call it delish.]
But to get to the point, I had originally thought I would make the bow and circles out of fondant, but I got to thinking that fondant has a tendency to sag and limp a bit when not given the proper time to set up and dry. Notice how perfectly round those circles are, and how perky that bow? Modeling chocolate!!