Root Beer Float Cake

This cake was done for a friend's birthday and I've wanted to try making a
root beer cake for some time but had never found an appropriate occasion. The cake layers were root beer cake, it was filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped in a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream. The buttercream recipe was a new one for me and it was heavenly and I think will become my favorite buttercream to be made often in the future! The cake was wrapped in a Callebaut white chocolate collar, which was made using a chocolate transfer sheet to get the pattern. The cake was topped with roses and leaves made from modeling chocolate and pink gumpaste flowers.
 
I took this cake to a restaurant off Robson Street on Friday night and in my opinion, it was a fairly "plain" cake. People were stopping on the sidewalk as I was walking from the car to the restaurant and it attracted much attention in the restaurant. The people at the next table actually asked our waiter to negotiate getting a piece of the cake and when they tried it, they loved it! Wow! And two of the waiters also tried it and it was a hit with them as well...  Now if only my business cards had been ready before Friday, I might have been doing a few more cakes sometime soon! The new business cards should be ready for pick up this week though so at least I won't be caught unprepared again!