I have a mug at work that I love.  It’s from Starbucks and I got it a few years ago on valentine’s day. I wanted to make it into a cake…so I did.

My greatest challenges were creating the well where the “coffee” goes and getting the handle to stay on.  For the well, I carved a little out of the top of the cake before I covered it with fondant.  It made a little bit of a mess so I spent a lot of time brushing crumbs off the cake.  In retrospect, I probably should have cut the hole out of the top layer of cake before I even stacked the cake.  Oh well!

Next, the handle.  That was tough.  What I ultimately did was create a flat piece of fondant mixed with gumpaste and shaped it sideways on the counter.  I let it “dry” as much as possible on a rolled up piece of plastic wrap.  After sitting overnight it was firm enough to hold it’s shape.  I attached it with some sugar glue and supported it from the bottom with the plastic wrap.  It held for a while but didn’t make it through transport. 

The cake is 2 layers of butter cake with 2 layers of red velvet with mocha buttercream.  It’s covered in a mocha fondant and topped off with some chocolate ganache “coffee”. It tasted delicious!