the CAKE

Drum roll please..........................................................................................................................

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Here it is!

THE CAKE!

THE cake plus practice cake and fun decorations.
Cute decorations. Aunt Beth made the oh-so-cute frog for Aunt Margaret's baby shower cake. I thought it was too cute to not use again (so I did!). She also made the cattails and reeds out of fondant. I made the toadstool and the white fish out of fondant. The blue pond is made of ...Starburst candies!

I baked the cakes in advance- there are four cakes total (two chocolate and two vanilla). I made two batches of marshmallow fondant in advance (I'm soooo glad I made that second batch of fondant!). I also made in advance three batches of different flavored frosting and raspberry jelly out of the red raspberries we picked the previous weekend. I also brought with me a huge supply of candies to use for decorations. (oh...and I shouldn't forget to mention the yummy coconut cream pie I made for the baby shower!)

So, on Saturday night after Aunt Margaret's baby shower and dinner with the family I started assembling the cakes. My first batch of fondant just failed. Nothing I could do would make it work properly. I did end up having to use it (on my practice cake)...fortunately it didn't fall apart before the birthday dinner. The flowers and leaves are made of Starburst candies (warmed in the microwave for a few seconds to make them moldable). The blue windows are also made out of blue Starburst candies. I was going to add window boxes but Mark said that it was enough! I also wanted to make fairies out of fondant or Starburst candies but I ran out of time and energy. At least the My Little Pony that is sitting on top of the fondant mushroom has fairy wings. I finished struggling & cursing at the cakes around midnight thirty and thankfully Mark helped clean up my disaster.

I don't think I'll use that cake stand as a cake stand again. I'm sure you can tell that something isn't quite right...it was very top heavy and it required an adult to hold it.

So...I'm glad I made the cakes. I wish the tops had turned out differently but I didn't have the right bowl for that. I'll keep trying to work with fondant. It is an easy way to make a cake look semi professional. All of this reminds me that I'd really, really like to take a cake decorating class soon!