Gettin' My Bake On

As you all know, I made an awesome cake for Kara's birthday. It might have been a little silly to make Kara a cake that she A. didn't eat and B. couldn't appreciate, but I really wanted to do it for her. Who knows, maybe it'll be my tradition to make fun cakes for my kids' birthdays. But this is beside the point; I wanted to show you all how easy it really was to make in case anyone is interested in doing this sort of thing.
Note: The entire process took a week. I wanted to break things up and not be stressed out about getting it all done in one day, which I really think would be impossible. Assembly and decorating alone took three hours. So pace yourself and do a little each day.

Okay....
The first thing I did was make the fondant (about a week in advance). There are two reasons I make my own fondant: 1. because it's less expensive and  2. it tastes better than store bought fondant. Plus, then you get to say you made your own fondant. And that's way more impressive :)

The first time I made fondant I used this website/recipe. This last time I used this website/recipe. The actual recipes are the same but the directions are a little different. I like the first website because she tells you how long fondant is good for, how to store it, what consistency it should be, and how big to roll out the fondant for covering the cake. I like the second website because there are better pictures and I found her directions for kneading the powdered sugar into the melted marshmallows to be superior. It was much less messy.

The next step was to make the cakes (I did this 4 days in advance). Once again, I used this website (if you just go to makeit-loveit.com, click on the tutorials tab, and go to the Make a Cake Series you can find all sorts of great instructions for making cakes/cupcakes). I found this to be a great resource. She says she always uses cake mixes (how can you not love that?!), but she has suggestions for making it more moist. I followed her advice and the cake turned out great...and it was so easy!

I do think it's important to use light cake pans so you don't get a dark crust around the edges. If you buy the Wilton cake pans there are instructions on how many cups of batter to put in the various sized pans.

Then I let them cool, wrapped them in plastic wrap and popped them in the freezer. Make sure to freeze them in a single layer so they don't weigh on each other. The advantage of freezing them is that you can make them a few days in advance (up to a week according to the Make It and Love It tutorial) and it reduces the amount of crumbs you get when you level the cake.

Two days before assembly I made the flowers and princess crown. I used gumpaste for this. You can buy this at craft stores or Walmart. For the flowers I used this as a guide:

This picture is from Cake Decorating At Home by Zoe Clark. I got it at Hobby Lobby.

Using the ball tool and my fondant shaping foam I frilled one edge of the strip of gumpaste (make it about 2''x12'' depending on how big you want your flower...it was trial and error for me till I got the right size). Then I started rolling it up with the frilled edge on the outside, making pleats here and there. I had to work very quickly because gumpaste dries fast. I think my first two flowers were a failure, but that's why I made so many. You can mix fondant and gumpaste 1:1 and this helps keep it from drying so quickly.

They don't look exactly like the picture but they were good enough!

I got the princess crown idea from the Make A Cake series. It was quite simple to make. I'm pretty sure the hardest part was getting the pattern the right size.

Next is assembly. I did this the night before. I actually made the raspberry buttercream frosting (for the filling) the night before I was going to assemble the cake. Before using it I let it come to room temperature. I did this because I had a second frosting I was planning on making (for the crumb coat/covering the cake) and the less I had to do the day of the better. As it turns out the whipped buttercream is very delicious...but I'm glad I didn't take a chance and make it the day before.

Okay. First you level the cakes using a serrated knife. Remember that the cakes are frozen so be careful not to cut yourself! Then you fill the cakes, making sure the cut side is in the center.

Here is where I used the raspberry buttercream. I also added fresh raspberries. The frosting was quite sweet and the raspberries mellowed it out a bit. It was heavenly.

Next, you cover the entire cake in a very thin layer of frosting. This is the crumb coat. If you use an angled spatula this step is definitely faster. I put each cake in the fridge while I was covering the other to help the frosting firm up a bit.

Once that is done you go back and cover it with a thicker layer of frosting (this is where having the frosting firm helps). Make sure it's as smooth as you can get it because this is the frosting that the fondant will stick to. If there are large bumps you will be able to see it in the fondant.

Put the cakes back in the fridge while you roll out the fondant. I have no pictures of my fondant because I was kind of in a hurry and totally spaced it. Really, fondant doesn't dry that fast but I was a little worried. Anyway. Here are some great directions for rolling out fondant. A non-stick rolling pin is essential and I have found that a non-stick Roll and Cut matt is really nice to have.

I used a pasty wheel to make the quilted pattern. Mine is plastic and has different attachments. I used the little spiky one. I intended to do the quilting before I put the fondant on the cake because I knew it would be difficult to get the tops and the sides to match up perfectly (because this was my first time ever doing it). But, alas, in my rush I forgot and had to do it after the fondant was on the cake. It turned out okay, but definitely not perfect. Oh well. Next time it will turn out better.

I repeated that for the top layer and then added some pink sugar pearls where the lines intersected.

 

 Next, the scary part: I stacked the two cakes. In order to stack cakes you have to have some sort of support dowel in the bottom layer and a cardboard base on the top layer (these both come in different sizes). The dowels keep the top cake from crushing the bottom cake and the cardboard circle gives the dowels something to support. Make sense? To ensure the top layer won't slide off the cardboard circle just put a bit of frosting on the base before you place the cake on it. Cut the dowels down to the height of the first layer and then stack the top layer, making sure it's centered, on top.

The final touches were to place the flowers,

and the crown. I brushed a little pink pearl dust around the edges of the crown to give it some color. I also did this on the roses to give them some sheen.

That's it! I'm sure I came off more confusing than I wanted to. If you're really interested take a class at Robert's Arts and Crafts or Michael's or just ask me to come over and show you! :)

I also made some cupcakes with the leftover batter (these were baked at the same time as the cakes) and raspberry buttercream. They were also delicious.