Black and White Swirl

       I have always wanted to design a black and white cake.  In my opinion, this color combination is classic and exudes elegance and boldness.  A friend of mine, Dories, celebrated her birthday last week and so I decided to create this cake and bring it to her surprise party, in Brooklyn, NY.  I made my sketches and browsed through my photo collections to get more ideas, but every time I'm in the process of decorating my cake, I always seem to get diverted  from my original design.  I guess this is when the frustrated artist in me kicks in. Hahaha! 

      This is a moist red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and covered with home-made marshmallow fondant, all made from scratch.  I initially intended to use royal icing to create the black swirls on the cake but instead, I thought it would be more interesting if I used  rolled fondant to give more texture and boldness to the design.  Black and white colors project a contrast that really appeals to me.  
     After placing the fondant swirls, I hand-painted each of them with edible  black gel to make them stand out and have that glossy effect.  I placed clustered roses on top and scattered a couple of petals around it, also made of fondant.  I made these roses a week ahead, enough time to let them dry.  They  are all hand made and I did not use any flower cutters at all :D - a technique I learned from a fellow cake decorator on YouTube  :). The roses represent passion and love from her family and friends surrounding her on that very special occasion.   Happy Birthday, Dories!