Numero Uno! Cake time.

This latest Cake creation is for a very special one year old. It's bright and fun & likely to put a smile on anyone's face. I do not have a cake recipe to share, because, quite frankly, Martha let me down. The cake was no bueno. So let's just pretend it was good cake and move on.

This was my third fondant creation, and though I still have a long way to go, I am slowly getting better at working with fondant.

The recipes for the frosting and the fondant are my trusty standbys. Here are the deets:

The Frosting

1 1/2 Cup Butter (3 sticks)

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Pure Almond Extract

6 Cups Sifted Confectioner's Sugar (Must be Sifted!)

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

The Frosting How To

Whip it all together on medium high for 3ish minutes. I cream the butter and 1/2 the sugar, then add the other ingredients and remaining sugar.

The Fondant Deets

1 Bag Powdered Sugar (2lbs or about 7 cups)

1 Cup plain Shortening (don't use butter flavored or the fondant will be yellowish)

1 Cup Light Corn Syrup

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Pure Almond Extract

1 tsp Salt

Gel Food Coloring (A lot of coloring!)

The Fondant How To

Mix until smooth and stiff. If the Fondant is sticky add more powdered sugar. To color separate into balls (depending on how many colors you want to make) Be sure to leave extra white - you will always need more white. To color use gel colors (liquid will not work) Coloring takes a long time, so you have to kneed, kneed, kneed. Once you get the desired colors roll it out on a powder sugar coated surface and decorate as desired. Remember Fondant will crack if it gets dry, so be sure to keep anything you aren't using within 15 minutes covered.

Not quite large enough

The Assembly 

Bake the cake of your choice, let cool

Crumb-coat (apply a thin layer of frosting on each cooled layer of cake) and stick in the fridge to "set"

Apply a layer of frosting over the crumb coat

Roll fondant into a thin circle large enough to cover your tier

Smooth fondant over tier

at this point I added stripes to the bottom layer and the circles/dots to the top layer

To stack the tiers, I put the top on a piece of cardboard so it could easily be removed for the "smash" cake.

For the topper I created this out of fondant, it is two sided with the babe's name on the other side and toothpick in the middle to hold it up, I set it on a smooshed up paper towel to dry overnight.

Here is the finished product

Happy Birthday sweet Babe!