Chocolate Cage Birthday Cake w/ Tutorial

Tomorrow, which is Halloween, and my daughter's 20th birthday. I wanted to make a special cake for her as she hits this wonderful milestone in her life. Leaving the teen years behind her and embarking on the next season of her life..

I made her this pink chocolate cage cake.. I've been hearing about this technique for awhile now and never thought I'd be interested in adding it to any of my cakes I've made. I almost decided to order a cake for my daughter's birthday thinking I was going to be knee deep into hunting season but I saw a cake photo online with this technique and knew I wanted to do this. It's simple.. a lot simpler than frosting techniques so I was game..

I started out by making a pink camo cake and frosted it with milk chocolate frosting as you can see above. (when I make cakes, the cake itself usually matches the theme of the outside) I smoothed out the frosting to form a clean edge.

After I frosted the cake, I placed it in the refrigerator to harden the frosting a bit and get it nice and cold. I then gathered the necessary supplies to make the chocolate cage. I rolled out parchment paper and measured it to the width of each of my layered cakes. I then took a ruler and measured the height of each layered cake and drew a line across the parchment paper to form the top of where I wanted the chocolate to go. I decided one inch higher than the cake top to form a nice border around the edges since I knew I wasn't going to add anymore frosting.

I also purchased some sprinkles and pearls for some added BLING which I sprinkled on once the cake was put together and added the pearl candies to the edging around the top layer....

Candy Melts.. This is what I used to make the chocolate cage. The cake photos I saw online and on Pinterest used semi sweet chocolate but I knew I didn't want the cage to be brown since I was frosting the cake with chocolate frosting.

After I formed the line and made the parchment paper the right size I melted the chocolate according to package instructions and placed it into a Wilton frosting bag. I cut the tip off to form a small hole and went to town making circular designs making sure not to make them too thin and to overlap to cause the cage to assemble together.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you are using Candy Melts like I did.. Be advised. This stuff hardens quickly!! I thought I had time to make both layers since one bag of candy melts was more than enough to make both cages. By the time I got back to the first chocolate cage to place it on the cake it was already hardening... fast... So I would advise to do one layer at a time and then place the frosting bag with the candy melts back in the microwave for 20 seconds on 50% to remelt it.

Then very carefully wrap it around the cake. DO NOT MOVE IT! Line it up where you want it before placing it against the frosting. It will break if you try to shift it. The paper as you can see above literally comes right off and I had no issue with the chocolate sticking to it when I removed it.

Here you can see it all put together on the cake layers...

I decided to add a little extra to the cake. On a separate sheet of parchment paper, I wrote a 2.. and a 0... let it harden, then I flipped it over and retraced it so it was whole on both sides. I also added a couple little candy designs to go next to the numbers on the top. All made from the candy melts. I added a row of the pearl candies around the top layer and the cake is done..

This was a fairly simple cake to make and it looks like you spent a ton of time making it.. I'm sure you will get some nice compliments when making this.. I can't wait now to show it to my daughter for her birthday tomorrow!