Baker challenges herself to make mini cakes that look like garlic bulbs

Natalie Sideserf, of YouTube’s Sideserf Cake Studio and the Texas bakery of the same name, makes hyperrealistic cakes. Sometimes it’s a McDonald’s Egg McMuffinJimins from BTS or a bloody brain. But no matter what it is Sideserf always gets the illusion right.

The master baker recently posted a hyperrealistic garlic bulb cake tutorial. Sideserf’s cake is actually made to scale so it’s fairly tiny, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t take her expert skill level. 

“For this cake, I challenged myself to make it within two hours. Now that sounds like a lot of time, but really it’s not,” Sideserf explained in the video. “I actually pulled off a pretty difficult challenge.” 

She starts with a cylinder of red velvet cake about the size of a garlic bulb. Sideserf cuts the cake horizontally and sandwiches the layers with a chocolate buttercream frosting. She then uses a serrated knife to carve the cake into a teardrop shape before she coats it with the buttercream. Next, she rolls out a very thin layer of white modeling chocolate. Sideserf covers the cake with it and trims the excess. 

Which of these sandwiches is a cake? Click here to find out.

The baker wets a small square of vanilla wafer paper on both sides. She then covers the real garlic bulb with it, almost like she’s doing papier-mache. After letting it dry for an hour, Sideserf peels the wafer paper, now hardened into the shape of the bulb, off and covers the cake with it. 

For the top of the garlic cake, she takes a dollop of modeling chocolate, sculpts it, then paints it with brown coloring so it authentically looks like the stem. She then brushes on some brown sugar for texture. Finally, Sideserf paints brown and purple lines onto the wafer paper to mimic the lines on the real garlic. 

When she’s all done, the mini cake looks nearly identical to its real-life counterpart. 

“You are the best realist cake maker that I’ve ever seen,” one YouTube user wrote

“We stan a talented, hyperrealistic baking queen,” another said

“Killed it,” someone added.

If you liked this article, check out how these ultra-realistic cakes are tearing people apart.

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