Last night I spent the better part of my time making some red velvet cake balls for a pot luck at Art's work. The chocolate was too hard in the first batch and seized up, and so the resulting product was lumpy, bumpy, but I assume still delicious. I tell you this because when I attempt to claim the amazing masterpiece below you will understand exactly how ludicrous an idea it actually is.
Vera over at Baking Obsession must love her son a lot. I mean a LOT. Because when he requested a Skyrim-themed birthday cake, not only did she deliver, she delivered one of the most beautiful cakes I've ever seen. She created Alduin the World Eater out of molding chocolate, fondant, and gum paste, and I swear, if you look at it from the right angle, the cake actually moves.
Modeling her design off of the statue that came with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector's Edition (photos off the internet mind you, not the actual statue) Vera started by making the base stone out of four 13 x 8 sheet cakes. I am curious on that size because my pans are all 13 x 9, so maybe there's a store out there that sells strangely shaped cake pans. Soaking the shaped cake in strawberry syrup she bound them together with bittersweet strawberry ganache. I've only made chocolate ganache, but I assume the technique is similar. The cherry on the cake (pardon me, I had to) is the fact that she used actual Swarovsky crystals for the eyes.
"Happy Birthday Tim" is inscribed in the dragon alphabet on the base of this edible work of art. I wonder what magic happens when you Thu'um those words. Probably conjuring an epic good time, and lots of presents.
[source Baking Obsession, via Kotaku]
The only down side to this beautiful masterpiece is that it sets the bar pretty damn high for future birthdays.