Got to Start Somewhere

As embarassing as this was, I am posting my cake pictures so that I can look back and see the progress.  WHEW, what a lot of work!

My first cake was for my twin boys 8th Birthday.  They love Spongebob so I decided to make that the theme.  I attempted to create fondant from scratch for the first time.  I have used fondant once before, but it was premade and tasted horrible.  This recipe was rather good, but I think I used too much baker's sugar.  It was a little dry and fell apart.   Next time I will not use quite so much sugar.   I found the recipe on The Cook Duke's website http://thecookduke.com/fondant-recipe/.  Give it a try!

I created 2 different cakes, both using a cake mix.  The first layer of the cake was chocolate with vanilla whipped frosting.  Because I was trying to focus on the decorations, I used canned frosting.  Next time.... from scratch!  

The cake came out of the oven rounded on top.  I used a cake leveler to flatten it, but the cake was rather crumbly.  After doing some research, I found that homemade cakes are less likely to crumble.  AH HA!  After finally frosting the cake as smoothly as I could, I got ready to apply the fondant.  I had colored it a pretty blue color by placing gel color in the middle and kneading it in.  I then rolled it to about 1/8" and folded it into fourths.  Next time, I will make sure it is big enough before doing this!  This part was a disaster.  After placing it on the cake, I realized it wasn't big enough to cover it!  Because it was already attached to the frosting, I couldn't lift it.  What followed was a mess of 'patching' fondant.  


I had purchased pre-made gum paste and colored it the same as the fondant.  Over all, I had a great time doing it and spent way too much fun.  I have a LONG way to go before I'm pro.  Yikes.