HAPPY 150TH ANNIVERSARY GOVERNMENT HOUSE

Sunday the 17th of November 2013 the Governor held an open day in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Government House.

I had the task of creating one MASSIVE cake to help with the celebration... (I had no idea what I was getting myself into)

Talking with the wonderful Head Chef we agreed on the size to be about 17" x 17" x 12" in height for the cake and the cake board to be 24" square (At Delicate-Lee we only have single standard doors so the cake board can't be any bigger then about 30").

After sitting down and working out the logistics, this cake was going to take more then one crazy cake artist (Esp as on the same week we had another 6 cake orders to create and finish for the Saturday).

I met and worked with this wonderful, smart, creative, talented and amazing lady a few years back for another cake company. We had worked on some big cake projects before and I knew she was the lady to help me make this possible, Sweet Little Farrah <3

Not only did Farrah come with help, I also had the wonderful massive help and support from Mr Delicate-Lee, My best high school friend, Melissa, Little Little Delicate-Lee Sister, Sazzie and her wonderful better half, Adam, Mother Delicate-Lee and Phil, Delicate-Lee Cake Muscles, Little Brother Scott....

I met up with Farrah on Sunday the 10th to discuss the cake project plan that I had come up with (just to make sure I was on the right track and that I wasn't missing out on ANY details). One skill Little Farrah has is that her scale work is flawless, she is very good with numbers (not like me). Quickly the cake size change, I wasn't going to question even if it was going to add MORE baking, Farrah knows best...

With the new planned cake size of 21" x 21" x 14" in height (just the cake), then with the towers it extended out to about 25" x 25" x 20" in height...So that means the board had to grow to a maximum size (thanks to the shop doors) of 28" x 28" (Special Thanks to Hendo for cutting my cake boards)

Baking this creation was a special task, I love baking but the pressure was on to make sure that the cake baked was 110% perfection (there was going to be A LOT of Perth people eating this Monster Cake.

To kick start this project I needed (**Please note not all ingredients are listed due to "I DON'T GIVE AWAY MY BUSINESS RECIPES"**) just for the baking...

~12 (twelve) KG Dark Chocolate 

~20 (twenty) LT Milk 

~19 (nineteen) KG Butter 

~32 (thirty-two) KG Sugar 

~4 (four) KG Cocoa and about 150 Eggs...

I also made about 28 (twenty-eight)KG of Dark Chocolate Ganache... JEEPERS, Just a little bit sugar crazy? 

Once all cakes were baked, I then (along with the help of Melissa, Thank-You) cut (using my NEW AGBAY, Thank you Mr Delicate-Lee) each layer into 1"(one) thickness's ready for stacking and GANACHING.

Taking a WHOLE day and a HALF with the help of Melissa, Mr Delicate-Lee, Mother Delicate-Lee, Little Little Sister Sarah and her better half Adam.

Building a cake starts with CAKE, ganache and more ganache...

Once the stacking and ganache process was finished and a massive chocolate ganache clean up I was then joined by the wonderful and talented, Little Farrah.

We got straight into it... covering, embossing and creating...

The sweet and talented, Farrah

We covered the entire cake in white RTR, I then worked my cake magic with my airbrush and brought the building to LIFE... I used layers ivory, cooper, special red, brown and royal blue to create as close as I could to the roof and building colour.
  

Airbrushing...

Once the colour was added Farrah and I started to add the building details...

Starting to look like a little something...

Farrah and I working and working... Time ticking closer to delivery...

Long hours later we finally finished this monster creation... With the finish cake being close to 150 (one hundred and fifty)KG I had to call on some "Delicate" cake muscles to help get the cake into the van, ready for the trip to Perth (Thanks Mr Delicate-Lee, Brother Delicate-Lee and Phil).
 

Brother Delicate-Lee AKA "Delicate Cake Muscles"

The drive from O'Connor to Perth shared with my brother wasn't stressful and we arrived at Perth Government House on time with no worry.

We then met the wonderful Head Chef, Andrew, who had some of his muscle men to help carry this cake-o-piece into place on the stage ready for the Governor for the cake cutting ceremony.

Once the cake was positioned Andrew took Farrah, Richard, Scott and I through the BEAUTIFUL, breathtaking House... WOW, Very impressive and such an AMAZING piece/structure and so much history. I feel honoured to be a part of such a great milestone and celebration.

I would like to say a massive Thank-You to My Mum, Pete, Melissa, Sarah, Adam, Scott and my wonderful, talented, sweet, kind cake artist angel, Farrah for all your LOVE, HELP and POSITIVE SUPPORT <3 This will be a day/week in Delicate-Lee's Diary and Record that I will never forget.