Ed's Farewell Cake Memorial with Marble Cake and Buttercream Icing

Today is the funeral memorial, we are dedicating his day to his favorite "Star Trek" themes. Actually, it's kind of fitting for him in his final resting place as he is on a new trek in his afterlife journey.

I decided to make one of his favorite cakes and of course, Star Trek must be included in his memory.

My talented husband drew the photo with a toothpick on the cake and I filled it in. I had taken cake decorating classes years ago, I never did master the art of writing with frosting, but the true partnership together today made this cake perfect and I know Ed would have loved it!


Marble cake with buttercream frosting was one of his favorites.

R.I.P Ed,



                                 

Today is the funeral memorial, we are dedicating his day to his favorite "Star Trek" themes. Actually, it's kind of fitting for him in his final resting place as he is on a new trek in his afterlife journey.

I decided to make one of his favorite t.v. show the original Star Trek so this must be included in his memory.

My current talented husband drew the photo with a toothpick on the cake and I filled it in with frosting. I had taken cake decorating classes years ago, I never did master the art of writing with frosting, but the true partnership together today made this cake perfect and I know Ed would have loved it!

Marble cake with buttercream frosting was one of his favorites.


 

Batter:

3/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. of almond extract
1 1/4 cups milk, half and half sour milk or buttermilk
1 cup of mini chocolate chip
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
Mix the butter-sugar together until light. Add flour, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and milk. Beat till smooth, around three minutes, split batter into two bowls.
Add the unsweetened cocoa powder to one bowl mix well.
Grease the pan of your choice, o you can use a bundt pan, or two 8 inch pans using the same method. Start with a small amount of vanilla cake batter on the bottom, add a dollop of chocolate batter in the center, and sprinkle just the chocolate with mini chocolate chips. Continue layering until all the batter is gone. Do not stir. Bake at 350 for around 40 minutes till done, test with a toothpick if it comes out clean in the center.

Cool completely.

 Tip Note:

The easiest way to do a transfer of a photo is to take a cookie sheet upside down flat even side. Place on the back of a flat cookie sheet your favorite coloring book photo, and tape it. Place wax paper over it and tape securely then trace with frosting. When dry lift and place on the cake. If you are an artist like my husband you can draw the photo straight onto the cake with a toothpick and fill it in with a star tip.

You can use Royal icing or this frosting below, however, the one below will take up to three weeks to dry the one below hard enough so it won't break when lifting. The best thing about using the star tip to trace the photo even if it broke you can fix it with fresh frosting no one will know!

Butter Cream High Humidity Frosting:  Great for Florida or hot weather areas.

2 lbs powdered sugar

2/3 cup Crisco

2/3 cup water

1 package of dream whip

2 tablespoons clear vanilla

Beat with a flat beat in an industrial mixer 1 package dream whip and Crisco till light, gradually add the powdered sugar in and little water at a time. Whip for 12 minutes, and fold in the vanilla. The frosting is thick and ready to frost a cooled cake.

In this picture, I used a large star tip for the shell border, and a small star tip for the enterprise. For the dark m&m for the top of the ship and under the ship I used chocolate rounds cut out for the bottom deflector dish.

The gray frosting was tinted with a tiny bit of black food paste, I use Wiltons coloring.

If you would like the recipe for Royal icing see below.

This is the Wiltons recipe:

2 tablespoons meringue powder

4 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons warm water

Mix all together in a very clean bowl with a handheld mixer till this makes soft peaks 10 to 12 minutes.

 You may remember my post on September 11th when my son's father passed on,

                                     Farewell to Ed..