Baby Shower Cake

My friend Lesley hosted a baby shower recently and asked me to make the cake. The colors and theme for this cake were so fun, and I loved every minute of creating it!

I used chocolate fondant to cover the cake.


All of the decorations are made from homemade fondant.


Here's a closeup of the bear. I think making the blanket was my favorite part!


I wish I had a photo of the inside of the cake - it's a zebra cake. A zebra cake is made by separating your cake batter into two bowls. Then, you color only half the batter with chocolate. Then, you alternate the brown and white batter when you put it in the pan before baking. When it's sliced, you'll see a zebra stripe pattern. Here's a link to the zebra cake recipe I used:

http://www.azcookbook.com/zebra-cake/

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3193/rhondas-ultimate-chocolate-mmf

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Zebra Cake
http://www.azcookbook.com/zebra-cake/

Happy Birthday, Haley!

This cake was for the cutest 5-year-old girl! Her favorite color is yellow, and she wanted a dog cake. So, this was the result:



I came up with the idea of making a dog collar out of fondant and used it as the top border. I really like how it turned out. Although, I was a little disappointed to discover I wasn't the first decorator to think of this design. :o)



The little puppy and her toys were really fun to make! Here's my lesson learned, though:

Measure first, THEN start making your fondant figures. I made the puppy on the left without using the cake pans or finished cake for size guidelines. I realized after it was finished that it was WAY too big for the size cake I made. I wouldn't be able to fit any words on the cake along with the puppy. So, I made the smaller puppy on the right, which fit just the way I wanted. It worked out because I ended up liking the second one better. She looks more playful I think.



The cake was chocolate (Haley's request). There was a chocolate cake layer, then a brownie layer, then another chocolate layer. In between those I spread chocolate chip cookie dough frosting for the filling. Yum!

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/08/moms-amazing-frosting-recipe.html

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Duckies

I've seen some really cute baby shower cakes online, decorated with bubble-shaped fondant and a real rubber duckie. I thought it would be fun to try a similar design on a cupcake.

First, I made tiny ducks out of fondant.



I used sugar pearls (big sprinkles) around the edges and a few on top for the bubbles.



My three-year-old got to decorate her own. She was so proud!



Look at that perfect line of little pearls she placed one at a time, all by herself!



STATS:

Box mix of lemon cake

Buttercream Frosting:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Playing with Leftover Fondant

I had some leftover fondant from the cake and decided to experiment with making little figures out of it. I think the pigs turned out really cute. The rose is kind of chunky looking, but it's not too bad. Peggy Weaver suggests adding food coloring when you're first mixing up the fondant, instead of trying to add it later because it's hard to get an even coloring throughout the "dough." That makes sense for large pieces that would cover the whole cake. But, I added just a drop of pink to a small piece of fondant, and it didn't take long to get a consistent color.

The top design was fun to make. I laid a thin sheet of pink fondant on the bottom, then wove very thin strips (1/16" wide) on top. I then used a cup to cut the fondant into a circle. I think this would be a cute cupcake topper. You could make cherry filled cupcakes, then make the topper using red on the bottom and a good pie crust color for the lattice top. Then add some tiny red cherries molded out of fondant and a braided border to look like a cherry pie. I think those would be some cute cupcakes! I'll try that later.