Cake Experiments

So the boy-o's first birthday is rapidly approaching, and I've been busy collecting little bits of stuff here and there for his Pirate Themed party. One of the main focal points for a kids birthday is certainly the cake and as a crafty person I knew right away that I wanted to make his cake myself rather than hire someone to make it. I've never worked with fondant before, but I was considering making him a fondant cake. I decided I would try making a few "practice cakes" in order to get a handle on how to use this fondant stuff well before the boy-o's birthday.

My first attempt at a fondant cake was for Valentine's Day. Like all last minute urgent decisions I didn't decide to make this cake until two days before Valentine's Day, which meant I was a little limited on the supplies that were still available. There was no red fondant or any red dye left, so I picked up white and pink, and some blue and purple dye. The cake was just a simple Rainbow box mix with butter cream icing. (There was much moaning about the lack of chocolate...)

I didn't have a proper fondant rolling pin, or a cake mat, but I managed to work it out with a large wooden rolling pin and my kitchen counter. I found it pretty easy to work with, and I didn't have any troubles making sure there were no creases in the sides or edges when I smoothed the white fondant over the cake. So far so good!

When it came time to make the decorations: the bow, twisted ribbon, and the hearts, I found the fondant resembled play dough an *immense* amount in terms of texture and work-ability. I dyed some of the extra white fondant blue to make the bow and found it pretty easy to work the colour through evenly. The pink was pre-dyed.

I added the final detailing on the bow with an edible marker, which was also pretty easy to use, although I did have to press harder with it than I imagined I would. All in all for a first attempt at using fondant I think it was a big success! There are definitely some things I learned along the way, and there are some mistake I made as I went that I would fix for next time--largely because I had no idea what I wanted to actually make ahead of time.

I'm feeling confident after this first attempt that I'll be able to make the boy-o an awesome birthday cake! I've got one more practice attempt before then at the end of March for Hubby's birthday. He's requested a volcano cake! Go big or go home I guess!