Uh..., can I have a center piece?

Over at Debbie's Cakes is a very special Christmas cake she designed. In her own words,

Happy Birthday Jesus

I was ask to do a baby Jesus birthday cake. The design was up to me. My husband came up the the crown of thorns idea. To make the crown, I weaved rolls of fondant around a ring of rolled up of wax paper. Then before the fondant dried, I cut the crown into two sections. This allowed for easy removal of the paper without breaking the crown into pieces. After the fondant dried (several days), I "welded" (with royal icing) the rolls together in various places to keep them together when the paper was removed. Then after that dried, I removed the wax paper.

The thorns are made with royal icing and also attached with royal icing. The tips of the thorns are dabbed with red royal icing. The cake is red velvet with cream cheese icing.

Red velvet - signifying the oh-so-yummy blood of the lamb. Happy birthday, Jesus, indeed!