My son Culann is getting in touch with his Irish roots.  Never mind that we have predominantly German blood, the surname and the attitudes are most definitely from a greener place.  This cake was for him.

I didn't want to make a St. Patrick's Day cake with the cliched and tiresome symbols that we often see around the middle of March - green beer and leprechauns, that sort of thing.  I wanted there to be more meaning and less stereotype.

At his suggestion, I made a mashed potato cake in a nod to the role the potato has played in the destiny of Ireland and, by extension, America.  The cake was covered in buttercream and then in ivory fondant, with petal dusts used to create a parchment-like effect.  The green of the knotwork was done with an edible pen and treated like watercolor to give it a little bit of a glow. The black lines were piped on.

Beannachtai ne Feile Padraig.