So I decided to post pictures of the Halloween cake I just made to practice for Bransyn's birthday cake! ONLY because I decided to do a different design on this one. (: hahah.
It's definitely not perfect but, for my VERY first fondant cake AND layered cake, I think it turned out pretty good. I am SO glad I decided to practice before making Bransyn's real one. Because I have already learned a lot of things I need to do differently.
It was SO fun to make! I usually don't have fun cooking or baking, but I actually enjoyed this.
It did take quite a while to make, though.
I wanted to make the fondant a few days before I used it, because the recipe I used says that it usually turns out better if its refrigerated for a few days.
So I made that on Thursday night, after buying all the ingredients.
I think this was the funnest part.
It was SO gooey, & stuck to my hands a lot. I love playing with things like that!
Then I made the cakes on Friday, so that they could cool overnight.
I did a chocolate one & strawberry one.
I know, weird combo. I wanted to do chocolate & white, but they didn't have white cake. So I got strawberry.
The chocolate cakes came out PERFECT. I had to do the strawberry twice.
the first time, the middle of the cakes stuck to the pan, & completely ruined them. So I just threw them out. I thought it was maybe because they were still pretty soft. So the next time, I made sure to spray the pan EXTRA good (I did that the first time, too. But decided to do a bit more just to be sure it wouldn't stick) And I cooked them a little bit longer.
I took them out of the pan the next day, & what do ya know. Those ones stuck too!
What the heck?!
But they weren't as bad, so I just decided to stick the 'broken' parts back into the middle of the cake & make it work. I was out of cake mix. haha.
It ended up working okay, though.
So onto putting the cake together.
I frosted the cake with the buttercream icing & put the 2 layers together, then frosted the outside of it so that the fondant would stick.
It took me about 6 times to figure out how to get the rolled out fondant from the counter to the cake. Finally, I realized that I could roll it towards the middle on both sides, then lift it & move it onto the cake. That worked perfectly.
It's definitely not perfect but, for my VERY first fondant cake AND layered cake, I think it turned out pretty good. I am SO glad I decided to practice before making Bransyn's real one. Because I have already learned a lot of things I need to do differently.
It was SO fun to make! I usually don't have fun cooking or baking, but I actually enjoyed this.
It did take quite a while to make, though.
I wanted to make the fondant a few days before I used it, because the recipe I used says that it usually turns out better if its refrigerated for a few days.
So I made that on Thursday night, after buying all the ingredients.
I think this was the funnest part.
It was SO gooey, & stuck to my hands a lot. I love playing with things like that!
Then I made the cakes on Friday, so that they could cool overnight.
I did a chocolate one & strawberry one.
I know, weird combo. I wanted to do chocolate & white, but they didn't have white cake. So I got strawberry.
The chocolate cakes came out PERFECT. I had to do the strawberry twice.
the first time, the middle of the cakes stuck to the pan, & completely ruined them. So I just threw them out. I thought it was maybe because they were still pretty soft. So the next time, I made sure to spray the pan EXTRA good (I did that the first time, too. But decided to do a bit more just to be sure it wouldn't stick) And I cooked them a little bit longer.
I took them out of the pan the next day, & what do ya know. Those ones stuck too!
What the heck?!
But they weren't as bad, so I just decided to stick the 'broken' parts back into the middle of the cake & make it work. I was out of cake mix. haha.
It ended up working okay, though.
So onto putting the cake together.
I frosted the cake with the buttercream icing & put the 2 layers together, then frosted the outside of it so that the fondant would stick.
It took me about 6 times to figure out how to get the rolled out fondant from the counter to the cake. Finally, I realized that I could roll it towards the middle on both sides, then lift it & move it onto the cake. That worked perfectly.
After getting all of the excess fondant off around the edges, it was time to do the top part!
So I got those cakes all cut out, frosted, layered & all that.
Then had to dye the fondant orange. (as well as my hands, haha)
That took a while, cause I couldn't get it dark enough.
When I finally did, I put that on the rest of the cake.
Then it was time to decorate.
I did all of that free-hand, so that's why it doesn't look like the lines are even or with the same amount of space between them. haha,
But I did use something for the circles. But they kept sticking to the counter, so they got kinda mis-shaped when I pulled them off to put them onto the cake.
So I got those cakes all cut out, frosted, layered & all that.
Then had to dye the fondant orange. (as well as my hands, haha)
That took a while, cause I couldn't get it dark enough.
When I finally did, I put that on the rest of the cake.
Then it was time to decorate.
I did all of that free-hand, so that's why it doesn't look like the lines are even or with the same amount of space between them. haha,
But I did use something for the circles. But they kept sticking to the counter, so they got kinda mis-shaped when I pulled them off to put them onto the cake.
It took probably around 3+ hours to just put the cake together. I don't even wanna imagine how much longer its gonna take to do Bransyn's, since his will be a lot neater & put together more carefully.
But here is the finished product!
But here is the finished product!
I frosted the cake as much as the instructions told me to, but it was still way too much! you can kinda see how it's collapsing for that reason & also because the fondant was rolled a little too thick! The fondant being too thick also made it crack a bit. But since I already had it on the cake WITH frosting, I couldn't take it off to roll it more.
Things to remember for next time:
• roll fondant thinner.
• don't put so much buttercream frosting on the top & sides.
• make my OWN frosting, it's thicker.
• do not store cakes on top of each other after taking them out of the pan. the top one smooches the bottom one, making it thinner. Which makes the whole bottom part of the cake thinner.
• MEASURE the space between the stripes & get those straight.
• don't get corn starch on the top of the fondant. It's kinda hard to blend, haha!
• when layering the two cakes, put the bottoms together, or else it makes a big space in between the cakes. & it looks better.
• smooth the fondant as MUCH as possible!
I think that's all that I need to do differently, for the next cake to turn out better.
Here are some pictures of Bransyn licking the cake pan that Grandma gave him. He LOVED it.
He kept pointing the the real cake, cause he wanted more! haha
He kept pointing the the real cake, cause he wanted more! haha
At least it was only the strawberry one, & not the chocolate one! hahaOr else mama would of never let that fly ;)
(you can kinda see my ruined cake in the background!)
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