Christmas-themed Cake at California Grill
Date Received: 12/13/09
Location: California Grill
Cake info: Chocolate cake with chocolate chips and chocolate mousse filling
Price: $100
How I Got Inspiration for the Cake: The cake was a surprise for friends whose anniversary is Christmas Eve, so I went on
www.flickr.com and searched for "Christmas cake" and then, after being completely overwhelmed by the number of images, narrowed it down to "penguin Christmas cake." I created a file of photos of cakes I liked and then had my husband create a photo composite using the elements I wanted from each cake.
I highly recommend using Flickr if you're stuck on ideas for a cake, since Disney doesn't offer any standard selection of cakes or website of photos to use as inspiration.
How I Ordered It: I called the Contemporary and asked to speak with Private Dining. I told the CM that I wanted a customized fondant cake, and she gave me the email address of Pastry Chef Brian. I emailed him the size, flavors, and a description of the cake I wanted, plus the photo composite of the way I wanted the cake to look.
The results were amazing - he got everything exactly as I wanted it and exactly as it appeared in the picture. I was worried that the penguins would be hard to match because the ones in the picture I sent were so stylized, but he did a fabulous job.
The trade-off with these elaborate Disney cakes is taste. It wasn't a bad cake, and it certainly wasn't dry - with all that mousse and the chocolate chips, it was very moist. It just wasn't very flavorful, in my opinion. However, the guests of honor liked it, and that's what counts!
Just to compare, here's the photo composite we sent them using images from Flickr.com:
I almost couldn't bear to let them cut it...
Afterward, they boxed up the leftovers: