Chocolate Leaves

Did I mention I have three boys?  And a husband.  And a male cat.  And two hermit crabs and four frogs who have all been dubbed male by those who care.  Yes, around here it’s all boy, all the time.  No tea with petit fours, no pretty dresses.  You can cut the testosterone with a knife.  And while we’re cutting (watch this segue) just imagine the “manly” cakes I’ve made . . . Thomas, John Deere, Mario and Darth Vader, to name a few.

So it was my delight to make a birthday cake for my friend Kristin recently.  As tempting as it was to go with a full floral theme (and make use of my dusty Wilton instruction booklets), I decided to focus on fall.  It was a small celebration, so I used my Pyrex measuring cup to bake a small spice cake and topped it with white chocolate buttercream frosting:

1/2 C butter, softened

1 C white chocolate chips, melted over a double boiler

1 tsp vanilla

3 C powdered sugar

Then came the fun part!  I printed out a sheet of leaf line drawings.  Then I used melting chocolates in different color combinations and piped them onto wax paper over the leaf templates:

Using a toothpick, I spread and swirled the chocolate to the edges of the templates to create textured leaves:

After letting the chocolates harden in the refrigerator, I covered the cake with the delicious (and might I say girlie?) foliage:

 

Kristin loved it (and so did the boys)!