After trying to come up with a unique birthday present for my die-hard-bears-fan-father, I decided to attempt my first encounter with a fondant cake.
I read a few “How To’s” and headed to my local craft store to purchase my supplies (now I know why professional cakes cost so much). The cake consists of 2-10″ and 2-8″ Chocolate Buttermilk Cake layers and Cream Cheese Buttercream Icing. I was able to purchase the orange fondant pre-dyed but had to dye white fondant to get the navy blue I was looking for (Blue + Black Gel Colors).
The day I intended to start making the cake, I had to have a wisdom tooth pulled unexpectedly, so the overall time put into this cake might have been a little longer than some since I was on pain meds!
I baked the cake layers, assembled the tiers with dowels and buttercream and put on the fondant 2 nights before we served the cake. The day before we served it, I rolled more fondant and hand cut all of the decorations for the cake. The orange writing was orange colored white chocolate ‘candy writer’, worked amazing!
The jerseys are to honor my dad’s 2 all time faves, Dick Butkus & Walter Payton!
There are 4 dowels in the bottom layer to support the top layer and 1 long dowel through the entire cake to prevent shifting. The cake successfully survived the 20 minute car ride to the party and my dad LOVED the cake! Everyone gave me rave reviews on taste and appearance!
The only thing I would like to change next time is the icing piped around the bottom of each tier. I was not able to achieve the uniform edges I would have liked. I think next time I will use either a ribbon or a roll of extra fondant instead of the icing.
Other than that, I was quite pleased with my first attempt into the world of fondant and would tell anyone that wants to try it that it’s not as hard as it looks. I am not a crafty person and with a little patience and little time, it was well worth the time and effort put into it. I do have a new found respect for cake professionals though!
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