Lucky Lady Bug Cake

Today is August 1st, 2013. It's been a while since I've blogged... [I've post dated this when the cake was actually made... which was... ummm... pretty much 2 years ago!]

I made this tiered lady bug cake for a good friend's niece's very 1st birthday. I also made a lady bug smash cake for the birthday girl. If memory serves me right, she was a little freaked out about the texture of the crusted buttercream but was able to dig in with a little encouragement!

I started with a client sketch based off a lot of similar cake themes.

 I then went on to make and shape the daisies.

 

The lady bugs were made from red fondant and black edible ink markers.

 

I put the two together and let them dry in a flower former.

 

 I didn't take pictures of the rest of the process but I made two round tiers and used a Wilton sport ball pan to make the lady bug cake topper and smash cake. I guess I didn't take very good end product photos either... I'll just share what I have and you'll get the idea. I made the lady bug antennae by putting black fondant balls on the end of Chef Duff wire I bought at Michael's.

The smash cake was one half of the Wilton sports ball pan. I tinted some buttercream red and piped stars over most of the body. The face and spots were layered on with black fondant.

I "glued" the daisies on with a little bit of water but they were a bit heavy and slid off the cake a few times. I'd recommend making a fondant glue by mixing a tiny bit of fondant with some water to get a better hold.

Here's the lucky lady at the party.

Crazy that little Sofia is going to be 3 soon and I'm just getting around to sharing this!