Sample Machine Cake

My dear brother recently celebrated his 30th birthday (which was also a special birthday--30 on the 30th!) so I just had to make him an awesome cake! He has been making beats for several years, and music is his passion, so I wanted to make something that embodied that. Then I thought, "why not make a cake that looks like his sample machine?" I started with a white cake recipe from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Baker's Joy a 9x9 inch pan ( I used an 8x8)or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2) In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. 

3) Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan. 

 
4) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.* For my 8x8 pan, it took about an hour*

While the cake was baking, I worked on a Ghirardelli Chocolate Buttercream recipe:

• 4 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar ( I used semi-sweet chips)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cups hot milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoons salt

1) In heavy saucepan on low heat, melt broken chocolate with butter, stirring constantly. 

2) Beat sugar with milk, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Add melted chocolate, and beat until thick enough to spread on cake. 

After the cake had cooled, I cut a layer, and added some frosting and Heath bits.

After covering the cake in fondant, I went to work on some details.

Little knob detail...

And here was my reference...

Courtesy  zzounds.com

He loved it!