Lived Long & Prospered: A Tribute to a Great Man

I wasn't sure if I could do this cake.

It's a little late I guess... But it was hard to get past the bad and get it done.

A tragic thing happen to the geek world.

Leonard Nimoy has passed away.

Most know him now as the Original Spock. I like to think of him as the Grandfather of all Geekdom. I'm certain there are others that feel that way too.

He was genuine, intelligent, hard working, giving, and loving. He was what all idols should be. He thanked his fans, and meant it.

This mural is spray painted on Edmonton's Free Art Wall by AJ A Louden (find CBC's article and photo here.) I wish I could personally thank Louden for this beautiful tribute to a legend.

I wasn't as much on the ball and got to it later; luckily it was still up.

In an interview Leonard Nimoy said his favourite meal was a good steak and a blueberry pie (sounds like a great meal.) Sorry Mr. Nimoy, cake isn't very pie-like, but I did put blueberries in it.

If you haven't noticed the decorations on the cake look a little 3Dish. That's because they are all chocolate. This is something I've done quite a bit before, but this cake was the first, and possibly the last, time I'll paint a chocolate portrait. It turned out ok, but it is extremely difficult to get a solid flesh-tone colour with chocolate wafers.

But here is how to do a basic pattern.

First: find an image, the simpler, the better (2 colour)
Second: Print it off to appropriate size for your item (smaller for cupcake, watch for height of cake, etc.) Be sure to flip any images with script or specific directionality)
Third: Tape onto a piece of wax paper.

Wax paper is your friend.

Then the fun begins.

Easiest way to do this is to melt your coloured chocolate wafers in a piping bag. Zap in the microwave in 20 second intervals and mush the bag to check for meltiness and/or mix colours together.

Then you want to pipe on your first colour.

This is the front most colour, the first one you want to make sure you can see. Remember the side on the wax paper is the front of your image, so you need to layer your colour accordingly.

Only pipe a small amount at a time.

Then take a toothpick and push the chocolate to the edges to get full coverage. If you get to a point where your chocolate is becoming solid too quickly you'll need to zap your piping bag for a few seconds.

Get all the corners. Wipe your toothpick off regularly to avoid goop build up.

If you have a few stray strings of chocolate or a mistake wait until the chocolate is just dry (but not hard) and use the toothpick to scrape off the unwanted chocolate.

Once you get your first colour all done (and let it dry a little bit) it's time to outline and flood with your second colour. I didn't have a drawn out border for this one so I just freehanded.

Overlap your chocolate so you don't have hole or bubbles.

Then you can smooth out the back. This in only necessary if you're applying your chocolate image onto a cake or something with a smooth surface.

To dry your piece you'll want to consider the shape of the surface you'll be placing it on.

Since my cake is round I used the same cake pan to dry the piece.

Paper is used to support the piece.

These don't take long to dry. The thicker it is the longer I'd leave it to dry (10-20 minutes is usually long enough.) These can be made ahead of time and kept in a cool, dark place (away from sunlight.) I've even done them months ahead of time and store them in a tupperware in the freezer.

I covered the cake in a mixture of fondant and modeling chocolate (about 3:1) so that I could push the chocolate images into the cake without having the fondant get crackily. 

And I splattered the cake with some white food colouring. Just dip my cake paintbrush in and flick it with my finger. Then I painted some shiny stars and made some comets and constellations.

To apply the decorations I used more melted chocolate and pushed the image onto the cake. You'll need to hold it onto the cake for about 10 seconds, so if you have hot hands be careful.

If you're using your decorations on cupcakes with icing you can just place them on the icing.

Once you have all the decorations on your cake all pretty you can be a dork and take pictures with your creation.

(My shirt colour was not deliberate.)

Also you can take your cake to the nerd gathering at the pub. Then some comic nerd unwanted affection might happen.

(Sorry Mr. Nimoy)

This is in no way a the best tribute given to Leonard Nimoy, but it's the one I could give.

You will be missed, Leonard.