Note: The featured groom’s cake was made by Chef Mendy of CakesbythePound.com.

Crabs cooked in garlic and butter..mmmnnnnn. This cake is edible but it’s not made of crabs. Chef Mendy said the groom was from Maryland and his wife wanted to get him something that reminded him of home. So she created a crab pot cake.

Everything we see are edible, except the board. The crab pot cake is made of layered vanilla butter cake and chocolate buttermilk cake with Godiva white chocolate, French buttercream, chocolate ganache, and VanGogh espresso vodka.

Photo with permission from CakesbythePound.

When it comes to wedding cakes, we often hear about chocolate ganache. It is used for frosting and filling. Ganache is French for a mixture of cream and chocolate. The usual method of making it is pouring hot cream into chopped chocolate and stirring until the mixture is velvety smooth.

Basic chocolate ganache is used to enhance a number of recipes, from truffles to frosting. It is truly a versatile baker’s help. Here’s a basic ganache from Joy of Baking:

8 ounces (227 grams)  semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon cognac or brandy (optional)

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil.  Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. If desired, add the liqueur.

Makes enough ganache to cover a 9 inch (23 cm) cake or torte.

Finally, a YouTube video on making it.

Note: This groom’s cake was made by Chef Mendy of  CakesbythePound.com.

This cake was done by Chef Mendy for an Atari video game fanatic. Anybody following Atari will immediately identify it as the classic Atari 2600 game console that was released in 1977. It was packed with 1 cartridge game, usually the PacMan, thus the familiar happy chomper decorates the board.

The console is made of chocolate blackout cake with milk chocolate coffee mousse, Espresso VanGogh ganache and Valrhona chocolate crunchy pearls.

Photo with permission from CakesbythePound.

For comparison, here’s a picture of the unedible one…