2/14/11

Baby's 1st Party Animal Birthday Bash

When I was asked to recreate a 1st birthday cake with fondant zoo party animals from a photo, I thought the trouble was going to lie in the making of the animal shapes. Turns out, I'm pretty good at 3-D fondant figures...
I'm not so good at the cake tiering aspect...
I covered this tiered milk chocolate-filled vanilla cake in baby blue buttercream and immediately started having issues. I got the icing as smooth as I could, refrigerated it to help it set and then used a Viva paper towel to further smooth out the surface but it kept cracking. Maybe my buttercream was too stiff? or the filling was too soft?
It came out cute but didn't transport too well... the buttercream just didn't want to hold up it's shape.
I provided fondant stars on wires to be stuck in at the party and my friend was kind enough to share these finalized images with me. 
What a big crackly mess!
*sigh*
Definitely not my best. I'm sure Matthew enjoyed it but I hope to get the chance to make something better for him next time around!

2 comments:

  1. Your animals are adorable and your cake is beautiful. Lucky Matthew!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the cake is so so very cute!! You did an absolutely amazing job with the animals! I think us cake decorators always are the most critical when it comes to our cakes. Im sure you probably already know this...but just a tip for the tiered stacked cakes, when I fill a cake I first make a very very stiff buttercream to pipe around the outer edge of the layers being filled to create kind of a dam for the filling. That way when you stack them, you do not have to worry about the filling oozing out. I have finally mastered the stiffness that this buttercream dam needs to be and it has helped me SO MUCH! Keep up the great work! I love you blog!

    ReplyDelete