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Black Chandelier Cake
Stamping
I decided that it would be much easier to stamp the sides of the cake before assembling the cake layers. This is because the honeycomb stamp that I made had a border that I didn't want to show up on the cake. I started by making the gold paint. This took a bit of experimentation to get the consistency right. I made sure to practice on a scrap of fondant before actually working on the cake, and discovered that if the paint is too loose, then it really bleeds a lot.
My initial attempt involved using a mini paint roller to get the paint onto the stamp. This was an excercise in failure, and I quickly moved to using a paintbrush instead to apply the paint to the stamp. I moved the cake to the edge of the table and applied the stamp. Again, I tried using a different roller on the back, but this also proved far less effective than just working the back with my fingers.
I applied all of the honeycombs first, on alternating sides of the cake layers. Then I added a little black to my paint and moved onto the Alice in Wonderland stamps on the remaining sides of the cake.
It wasn't quite a stamp, but I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about how I made the chocolate chandelier. We initially attempted using black royal icing, but it proved to be too brittle for us. I'm sure that a royal icing master could have pulled this off without a problem, but we decided to go with chocolate instead. I melted my chocolate very carefully over a double boiler, and then filled a disposable piping bag with it. If you don't keep those around, then a gallon-size zip-top bag will be fine.
Position a piece of acetate over a printout of half of the chandelier. If you don't have a hi-res copy of Jared Gold's chandelier like I did, feel free to download whatever picture of a chandelier you like. Snip a little off the corner of your piping bag and start tracing the chandelier. Chocolate tends to flow pretty quick when it's warm, so you're probably going to need to go fast. Don't bother with trying to get every single line perfect. In fact, it's largely a waste of time. I just used a tight filigree to approximate the shape of the chandelier. Remember to make as many lines touch as possible, because they will provide structure.
You'll need at least six chandelier halves, but feel free to make a few more for backup, just in case you have casualties. By the time you get through the first one or two, you'll have the hang of it, and making those backups will be easy. By the time you finish the last one, the first couple will probably be set up. This is where it gets a little tricky. You'll need to apply a line or two of chocolate to the edge of one piece, using it as glue to connect the next piece. We used rolled up paper towels to prop up the pieces while they dried.
The more pieces you add, the trickier it will be, but you will need six pieces total. Once an edge has dried, feel free to fill it in with a little more chocolate. The added stability will help. It probably would have been easier to put together the chandelier once we got to the party, except that we knew we wouldn't have any way to melt the chocolate there. So we assembled it in the kitchen, and then made a carrier for it using a colander and lots of crumbled and rolled up paper towels.
Thankfully, this proved to be enough to transport the chandelier over 45 minutes worth of Utah freeway with no breakage. Talk about luck.
