Native American Art Wedding Cake

When my dad and his sweetheart announced they were getting married, I was thrilled! They both love Native American art, specifically Haida and Tlingit or Northwest coastal art. Instead of having them order any gluten-free cake for my sister and me, I offered to bring a gluten-free cake.

I printed a picture from The Path Gallery's website. The print was called Eagle's Heart' by Wayne Edenshaw.

Backside of the chocolate transfer

Using melting chocolate in plastic baggies, I piped the dark chocolate lines first, then the white chocolate ones and then the red ones. The original artwork was much more complex than I could attempt using chocolate, so I had to simplify the design considerably. 

The finished product looked better than I hoped. You can see the eagles with their heads together at the top of the heart, and you can make out the chick in between them as well.

Since I wasn't sure what size I wanted to make the chocolate art or what size I wanted the cake to be, I made a small and a medium chocolate replica of the design as well.

I liked all three of the chocolate transfer designs, but I decided to use the largest one on a mini cake, which I baked in a casserole dish, since it was my only appropriately sized container.

I used plain white icing, most of which was covered by the chocolate anyway. I'm still not very talented at making the buttercream smooth, so it's probably for the best that my design didn't allow for much of the icing to show!

For the accompanying cupcakes, I free-handed some hearts and use a mold to create a few instruments (the wedding couple's other shared passion is music). The silicone baking cups worked beautifully! They made the cupcakes into cute flower shapes, but the colors were so autumnal and festive that I served the cupcakes still in the cups.

I liked the smaller chocolate plates so much that I made a cake boards for them and set them out with the mini cake and cupcakes as well. If there's a market for Native American Art replicated in chocolate, I think I've found my niche!