Log Cake

This is a chocolate log-cake with clusters of mushrooms made by Jana & Jack for Maeve on her birthday. 

It is not unusual for different species of fungi to live in symbiosis with trees, protecting them from disease and parasites. Other forms of mushrooms like Armillaria ostoyae, a genus of the Honey mushroom, are on the other hand directly harmful as they draw water and carbohydrates from the tree which eventually rots. Unlike most parasites the Honey fungus does not need to keep its host alive to thrive on it so it has a highly destructive impact once a colony is established. As if that was not scary enough, a colony that consists of a single-individual of the Armillaria ostoyae in the Strawberry Mountains in Oregon, USA, is supposedly the largest living organism in the world. It spans 8.9 square kilometers and is estimated to be 2,400 years old with a total mass of 605 tons.

 Real Honey Fungus