I baked the cake and decorated cookies for a 30th birthday party.

It was so exciting because I got to work with my favorite colors: black, white and gold.  What an elegant soirée; the guests arrived at the cocktail party dressed up in the semi-monochromatic color scheme.  The theme was shown through various elements – gold Chiavari chairs, sparkly sugar rimmed champagne flutes, textured gold frosted decanters full of wine on tray tables, sequin tablecloth, a mid-century modern bar set-up, Kate Spade gold foil confetti coasters, old gold party ware, dainty looking hors d’oeuvres and pretty mini desserts just to name a few.

The inspiration for the cake came from a gold driftwood cake that we had seen by ConnieCupcake Luxury Cakes.  Connie Dos Santos is an amazing cake designer based in Yorkville, Toronto.

Keeping the colors black and white in mind, I went for eight layers of fluffy white velvet cake and a dense dark chocolate mud cake sandwiched with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream and chocolate ganache.  To finish off, leaf cutouts of homemade marshmallow fondant were individually hand brushed in gold and arranged over cake to create a simple yet detailed pattern – not by all means simple to make.  Long skinny gold candles endowed it with an extra touch of modern glamour.

When making the icing decorated cookies I tried to incorporate as many geometric patterns as possible; sparkly stripes, shimmering chevron, mini polka dots, lots of the number thirty and gold-dipped circles.