'Bechukosai telechu' Hashem promises us abundance in everything if we follow in His Mitzvos.
This cake shows a pathway with footsteps. This is to symbolize one following the path H-shem has set for us- The Torah.
The trees and vegetation and greenery are to show abundance. It is a true Bracha to have food. So many miracles have to take place. The pond represents water. Water is symbolic to life. Without water there is no life. I happened to have made marshmallow birds so added them to my pond.
Make any cake you like. I made a chocolate cake. To decorate this cake, I made crystal sugar sticks ( for trees) and Royal icing was used to make the rest.
Sugar Crystal Trees
Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 1/2 cups sugar
green food colouring
kebab sticks
card board cut into squares to cover glass
tall glass
Method:
1. Dip the kebab sticks in water and roll in sugar. Set aside to dry.
2. In a sauce pan, boil the water, slowly add the sugar stirring all the time. Carry on adding Sugar until it no longer dissolves. Be careful to stop as soon as you see it stops dissolving. Add food colouring.
3. Pour the solution into tall glasses and allow to cool down a bit.
4. Push through the board measuring that when in glass the sticks are just not touching the bottom of the glass. If you see the sticks are sliding down, secure with some sticky tape.
5. Allow to sit in a dark place for a few days. the longer it stays, the bigger the crystals will be, I ran out of time so mine looked a bit skinny. If left for about a week, they should look something like this-
I only had about a day and a half...This would be a fun project to do with the kids on the Sunday before.
To assemble the cake:
Royal Icing:
Ingredients:
2 large egg whites
1 Tbls lemon juice
2 1/2 cups icing sugar plus more for different consistencies.
food colouring
Method:
The whole cake is decorated with Royal Icing. even the vegetable patch. to cover the cake and make the path and pond I used less icing sugar thereby allowing to be runny and easy to spread. I added more icing sugar to get it to the texture of 'Plastic Icing' to make the vegetables etc. You could probably even shape the ducks with the firmer icing.
1. To make the basic Royal Icing, place the egg whites and lemon juice in a bowl and whisk for 10 seconds. just to incorporate the lemon juice and egg whites.
2. slowly add the SIFTED icing sugar to the egg white mixture all while mixing. You dont want to much air going in so mix only till incorporated.
3. This should be enough icing for all the decorating of the cake. Divide this white icing into different bowls for the different colours. obviously you would put more for the green than you would for the brown and blue as you need more green. Dont forget to also set aside for orange or any other colour you may choose to make your vegetables.
4. Add the different food colourings to the different bowls....
NOW THE FUN CREATIVE BIT....
5. Cover the whole cake in green.
5. Using a toothpick or kebab stick, outline the path and cover with brown..
When its dry, add the foot prints...
6. Now do the same with the pond...
7. Using a spikey scraper, make a vegetable patch. If you dont have one, make one with card board. Just scrape up lifting the green making furrows.
8. To make the vegetables add more icing sugar and mix with a spoon. There are no exact amounts. Add a bit at a time until you get a play dough kind of consistency.
9. Shape as you would play dough. To make the green stem for the pumpkin, I placed some icing in a piping bag and with the narrowest tip twirled the stem (I was singing bobity bobity boo!)
10. Make the ducks out of the icing too...
11. Make a forest or and Orchard with the trees.....
Hope you have a wonderful Shabbos!
Orit
XXX
