Kobe's LA Lakers / Basketball 1st Birthday Cake

Remember Gab's 'Elmo Cake' from last year?
Well, Gab's cousin Kobe turned 1 last week.
It is an awesome feeling when a whole clan puts their trust in us.
We are honoured!

Kobe's parents are huge LA Lakers fans.
Ok, it's pretty obvious judging by his name alone. 

For inspiration, his mum sent us this photo from a Cake Central gallery:

So, working as closely as possible to the budget that they set for Kobe's cake,

we set out to design a cake especially for Kobe and his family...

To make the ball topper, we used RKT (Rice Krispies Treat) for the very first time.

We love 'first times' here at Sweet Art Cakes! The RKT was yummmo!

It's a miracle that there was enough of it to make the ball
after we started munching on the freshly made RKT. 

Here is sort of a a step-by-step photo-mentary of how the basketball came to be.

 Yes, a lotta love went into this cake. 

Just like every cake that comes out of our little kitchen.

Tah-dah! Kobe's cake is made up of:

1. A little Kobe-like handcrafted edible figurine topper (on topper, LOL)

2. An edible (RKT) basketball cake topper

3.  The cake (creamy & moist milk chocolate mud cake layered with chocolate ganache)

in the shape of a basketball hoop/net

Note: The fondant letters/number was made / cut by hand 

(we do not have flashy machines round here... yet.
We are poor hobbyists who run on pure passion). 

And some more photos to adore:

You can tell we were beaming with pride when it was picked up in the morning.

 

Until... my phone went off and it was from Kobe's mum.

Somehow the cake toppled over when they got home. Heartbreaking! 

Fortunately, their venue was local and we weren't due to be anywhere
for another couple of hours. We asked her to send a photo of the broken cake 

to see if we could help them out with some damage control: 

So, very swiftly, we got ourselves ready for the day -
baby and all (poor princess, had no idea what the rush was all about...
 had to keep reminding ourselves - it's ok,
little changes to daily routine reinforces resilience...),
then we packed together a 'trouble-shoot kit':

When we got to the venue, everyone prepping the place up was so happy and serene.

Such a pleasure working for Kobe's mum who was so calm and collected about it all.

The hall kitchen was very handy and spacious... 

and Kobe's grandfather was cracking jokes now and again.

 So, in the end, no matter if it no longer looked exactly like it did in the morning,

the cake got fixed! Whew! 

Word from Kobe's mum: 

"Hi Joy! Party was great! and yes the cake did hold up pretty well! 

Thank you again for all the work that you and Jane have done! 

And the cake was delish as always! Everyone loved it!"

Thank you, Kobe, for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!