Making Mozart: Requiem Night 2009

This year my contribution to Requiem Night was a 1 1/2 foot tall bust of Mozart made of sour cream pound cake and white chocolate. I thought a bust would be appropriate, seeing as most of the evening would be spent listening to Mozart's Requiem in it's entireity. All anttendees wear black for the occasion, the room is swathed in black fabric, and there are always candles to lend to the mourning atmosphere.

I began by sculpting dear Wolfgang's face out of white chocolate, which would end up acting as a kind of skull. It was too yellow next to the fondant to look good as the actual face. (You can add caro syrup to any melted chocolate to make it sculptable.) The next few evenings were spent baking the cakes...I made that cake so many times I won't ever need to look at the recipe again. Ever.

I froze the cakes, stacked them up, and began shaving away chunk by chunk and it began to take shape. On went the face, then I covered the whole thing with butter cream. By that time the cake had thawed out, and Mozart's chin was rather droopy. I fixed that by shoving some tin foil into his throat. Worked like a charm.

I discovered that fondant is HARD to work with! The worst thing about fondant is that you can't sculpt it. I put a piece of fondant on his head, thinking I could sculpt it into hair for his "powdered half-wig" but I found that it bounced right back. I couldn't take it off without destroying the head, so I had to gouge lines into the "hair" and be happy with it...I loved the way the cravat worked out, though.

Cake scultping is a messy business: flour everywhere!


Me and Mozart:


After serving his shoulders up, I took him apart to show everyone how he was constructed, so here is how poor old Wolfie made it home:



There was SO much cake left over! (I froze the biggest chuncks for christmas-maybe there is enough there to carve a Santa Clause head.) Once I had the idea, I had to go all out. Everyone was amazed and delighted, and I sure had a good time.

Sour Cream Pound Cake:

2 3/4 c sugar
1 cup butter
blend these until nice and creamy.

6 eggs
add one at a time, beating for about a minute between each egg. This makes the batter really light and fluffy.

3 c flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
combine these in a bowl, set aside.

1 c sour cream
add by 1/4 cups, alternating with the flour mixture, mixing well between each addition, scraping the sides of the bowl.

1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp orange extract
1 tsp vanilla
add and mix just long enough to be well blended

grease and flour your favorite bundt pan and bake for about 45 minutes (then stay close by and take it out as soon as a fork or toothpick comes out clean) in a 350 degree oven. The cake is great with your favorite frosting, or strawberries, or just a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Num yummy!