Justin Dressler's 22nd

Looks like we're coming back into cake season!

For Justin's birthday last year, I tried to make him a cake to go with the theme of his party - highlighter. This year, I wanted to do something a little more personal. From the start, I knew I wanted to incorporate Frank's Red Hot Sauce because Justin is the type of guy who will (and does) put it on everything. I found a recipe on Frank's website for brownies. I was so curious (and had a craving for chocolate) that I made these ahead of time. Turns out, they are good! Chocolate and Frank's go together!

After MUCH discussion with mutual friends, I finally came up with a cake idea. Justin is a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan, so I went with that theme. I made the Witch King of Angmar, leader of the Nazgul.

Witch King

For those who are curious, I used two boxes of Dark Chocolate cake mix and prepared them as usual, except I added about 2/3-1 cup of Frank's total. 

Frank's!

Construction of this cake was fairly basic. I used two round cakes, stacked them, and carved a bit of an oval out of them for the face. Then I used my 9x11 pan for the tall spike at the top of the head. 

Step 1: Layer cake

Beginning to carve and construct

Large spike added

Facial details

First layer of icing

Side view

I made the rest of the spikes using candy melts. I just piped the melted candy onto parchment paper into the shape of spikes. My black food coloring did some interesting things.. It made the candy melts nearly purple, the cake greenish, and everyone's teeth and tongues purple and grey.  

Candy melts

Piped out into spikes

Spikes attached, final product

  

I ended up having a bit of cake left over from the 9x11 pan, so I used the leftover icing to write a little Elvish message.

"Happy birthday Justin"

"You fool. No man can kill me. Die now."
"I am no man."

Me, the Witch King and the birthday boy!