Hi everyone!

We flew back from North Carolina last night after completing our 3D Mount Sinai cake. Thanks to all your various suggestions and help it was a huge success. This cake had a lot of firsts for me:

Using ganache under fondant- absolutely awesome!
Making such a tall cake, 22" in total
Carving a cake
Using gumpaste
delivering a cake in the pouring rain- very stressful
Setting up a cake on a non-level surface- very, very stressful
Traveling with my "kitchen" in my suitcase- heavy

But it was fun, baking and assembly went smoothly, and everyone loved it! Please take a look and let me know what you think! Here's the link: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1579214.html and photo.

Thanks,
Kathi

Kool! I just finished a beast this weekend and had a huge party... all cleaned up everything went very well and is now back to normal and resting. Go put your feet up. Wait- first extend your right arm up in the air, bend your hand down backwards towards your shoulder... go past and give your self a huge pat on the back! (((HUGS)))

Oh and that Rich whip works super nice in BC!!! Yummo-lishious!!!

Thank you, Sarah. My arms are too sore to reach that far right now. Maybe tomorrow!

Yes, the Rich Whip is excellent. I used it in my ganache under the fondant on this cake. Delicious!

Thanks,
Kathi

I have been wondering how you were coming along, after your question re. the shofar in an earlier post. It came out wonderful. It really tells the story, but I didn't know about the blooming flowers until I read your photo caption. I had wondered why the flowers before, but now it makes sense. It took a lot of chutzpah to try so many "firsts" on an important cake. Congrats!

Thank you, milkmaid42. A lot of those first weren't intended, like the rain! I was really, really happy with how it came out. I think this is one of my all time best cakes!

Oh, I forgot, I wanted to thank Doug for helping me determined some structural design on this cake! You rock!

Kathi

It looks wonderful, Kathi!!! It sounds like a lot of planning and prep went into it, and it shows

This is truly amazing!

Very nice!

Thank you guys, so much! I appreciate the encouragement!

Kathi

Rich Whip is a dairy free vegan and Parve whipped topping product.

http://www.richfoodservice.com/product_detail.cfm?cId=72&scId=7234&pId=4301

some of their products are kosher and others contain dairy. For those who are allergic to dairy this is a HUGE yummy thing for us... and those who eat Kosher.

is the regular liquid bettercreme that u whip yourself vegan? I have to make a vegan cake this May and that would be awesome if I didn't have to make my own icing for it, and wonder if it was going to taste any good

No. You must read through the ingredients, and if it does not indicate Kosher or Parve then it contains dairy ingredients or taces that makes that type of certification not possible. You can also look for Vegan.

well, it says non-dairy...........just wasn't sure if that meant vegan or not!

No no.... none dairy in fact always contains milk ingredients. It's a farce of the FDA guidelines and their stupid percentages and loopholes. Be extra careful when dealing with dietary limitations or allergies.
It must say Vegan or Kosher Parve to be actually dairy free.

k thank you so much, the last thing I want to do is have someone eat something they don't want to eat!! well, except for my kids lol EAT THAT MEATLOAF!! lol

You bet. You are very welcome KHalstead I am glad I could share some helpful info about the truth behind all that says none dairy... it all has whey or casienate or some other calcium that is straight from milk. It can be very confusing and frankly I don't understand the FDA's guidelines in this especially in light of the growing epidemic with milk intolerance and milk allergies.

Another tip on the ingredients: Lactic acid can be from soy and lecithin can be derived from sugar beets, but are both usually and most commonly derived from Milk in most products--- unless specified that it is from soy or sugar beets.