Cheshire Cat Cake for Melbourne Cake Club - March Madness

`But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.

`Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: `we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

`How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

`You must be,’ said the Cat, `or you wouldn’t have come here.’

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Our theme for the Melbourne Cake Club meeting this month was March Madness.  I loved this theme - there are so many different directions you could take it.

I was originally going to try my hand at a Mad Hatter Cake, but then realised that time was against me.  Inspiration came when I was flicking through Fiona Cairns' Birthday Cakes for a good cake for carving.  Fiona has an Alice's Tea Party section, with a big blue Alice Teapot, and some very colourful Cheshire Cat cupcakes.  I decided to use the base lemon madeira cake that Fiona used for Alice's Teapot,  but bake it in ordinary sandwich tins in a green, pink and purple zebra colour scheme:
 

I joined and covered the cakes with raspberry buttercream (using my favourite Primrose Bakery buttercream recipe):

then covered the cake with rolled fondant to mimic Fiona Cairns' Cheshire Cat cupcake design (with teeth in royal icing):

And here's a look inside the cake (that I had to wait nervously to see):

Other cakes at our March Madness meeting, held at The Mint Bar in Melbourne, were Sue's gluten free parsley and mint cake:

which was bright green inside:

Abi made an orange and black zebra cake filled with decadent chocolate ganache in support of her AFL team, the Richmond Tigers: 

Dalya made a chocolate, chilli and orange cake covered with delicious fudge icing and decorated with homemade fondant discs: 

Our newest member, Haidee, made mango and coconut cake filled with mango custard:

Alex made a gluten free tropical cake decorated with fresh fruit:

And Noni (who brought along her gorgeous three month old baby, Heidi) made a devine gluten free Persian love cake, generously decorated with cream, fresh fruit and rose petals:

Another new member, Katrina, also came along to check out proceedings.

Here's a look at The Mint Bar décor - we were happily ensconsed in the beer garden on a very warm night:

We had a fabulous night of March Madness.

The Mint Bar & Restaurant

Cnr William & Latrobe Street

Melbourne VIC 3000