I wasn't given many details, but I knew right away I wouldn't be so bold as to try a character cake since my only other experience with fondant had been a little cake mom and I designed with cookie cutters for Easter. We were just playing around and trying to get a feel for fondant making and decorating so the cake didn't have a design per say. We just made little critters and glued them on with water. Here's the result.
I'm aware it's not "Ace of Cakes" quality, but mom and I were proud of it and thought it was really cute. Apparently my boyfriend's mom, Darlene, had faith in me too. With funds in hand I went to Michael's Craft Shop and bought a few basic supplies. I had a design idea in mind and Michael's had the flower forms I needed, pre-colored fondant, and gum paste mix. I got a small pan for the top tier of the cake and a fondant smoother. I was ambitious and I hoped I didn't fail. However, I was well prepared to hit walmart before the party to buy a cake if need be. Afterall, I was diving head first into something I knew very little about, but I had faith... just not a lot of time.
I had originally planned to spend my entire Friday evening crafting the cake. However, my mom had an appointment with her surgeon 3 hours away in Lexington. I called to reschedule earlier in the week and it was the only day they could get her in. I decided I could work a little on the cake after we got home and get up the next morning to complete the cake before the party that evening. I had purchased the colored fondant for the decorations, but I planned to make white fondant from marshmallows and powdered sugar to cover the cakes because it tastes better than store bought. I decided to make that and the gum paste decorations the night before the party. I thought it would only take a couple hours, but a couple hours turned into five hours. The gum paste medium was a little more difficult than I originally thought, and while the gum paste decorations didn't turn out perfect, they were decent for a first try. (You'll see those shortly in the posted photograph.)
The next morning I woke early ready to get to work on the cake. I'd had only a few hours sleep, but I was determined to make the best cake I could for Hannah. She was turning 10 and loves peace signs so I immediately thought tie dye! I had seen tie dye cakes on other blogs before and although the process is time consuming, and flared up the ol' carpal tunnel, I had to do it. I mixed my batter, separated it into several bowls, and got out the neon food coloring. I think it was best to go with the neon and shortly you'll see why, but first here's a picture of the batter before baking.
Isn't it pretty? It also leaves a pretty mess behind too. All those bowls and spoons... oh my! Thank goodness my mom has a dishwasher.
So while the cake was baking I rolled out my colored fondant and made the large, medium, and tiny flowers that was I was going to use to decorate the cake. I set those to the side to dry slightly. After cooling and crumb coating the cake with icing I starting putting my homemade fondant on the layers. The fondant makes a nice consistency, but I kept cutting the layers too short. I didn't have time to redo the fondant so in the areas that were really bad I did patch jobs and covered those with my decorations. No one would even have noticed I had messed up in a couple spots if I hadn't pointed it out. That's the good thing about decorations. You can cleverly disguise any mistakes or problem areas! Remember this was only my second fondant cake so I was pleased with the results. Other cake maker's may view it as amateur, but that's what I am. I did my best and in the end the birthday girl was happy and that's all that matters. So now I present to you my first multi-layer fondant cake....
The 10 on top is made from gum paste. All the other decorations are fondant, but the outside wasn't even my favorite part of the cake. My favorite was the cake itself. It turned out perfectly and the neon food coloring really made those colors pop!
Just look how lovely the cake layers baked together! This also provides a good views of the three layer flowers I made to decorate the cake with. The cake itself matched the colors of the fondant so perfectly and I was very pleased. Remember if you want similar results to buy the neon food coloring.
This is an even better view of those layers and how the color just pops! So lovely.
All in all I was very pleased with the cake and the family appeared to be pleased as well so that made me a very happy girl. I hope to practice and get better and who knows maybe you'll see a cake of mine at a birthday party near you! We'll have to see how my skills develop, but I had a lot of fun making this cake and the kids loved the rainbow cake effect. It was back breaking work, but well worth it. Hopefully I'll be posting more cakes in the future.
I've also taken to decorating my own gift bags recently. I started at Valentine's Day and posted photos of those bags on my VDay Blog post. The most recent bags have been for my uncle's wedding and yesterday for Hannah's birthday. I was a little rushed on the birthday bag, but I was very pleased with both design and I just absolutely love mom's Cricut. I can turn a 1.00 bag into a bag that would cost 5.00 or more in the store. Take a look....
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