I can’t believe my baby is TWO! WOW, time flies!!! I made him a cake FULL of everything he loves!! I had GRAND plans for this cake, but due to the fact I’m a mom first and don’t want to ignore my children, I had to “downscale” the plans just a bit!! I’m sure you’re like, WHAT?! – downscale…but I intended to have a carved road wrap around the cake (see plan below). I might try that on the next one that has some kind of road, but I didn’t have time to carve it all. I have another cake due Tuesday night, so, this was plenty for me this week!
I was going to put a train on the track, but I liked it better without! 
Yes, I know whales don’t live in lakes…but I just thought it’d be fun!
Here’s a little video of the cake…I put it on a turn table so you get the whole look. And, yes…late last night I forgot the word “blow hole”…I was having a brain fart!
A few lessons learned (incase you’re still reading)!
1. I made a new recipe…mud cake! It’s an Austrailian cake that is awesome for a mommy who likes making cakes, but wants to be a mommy too! It’s actually better (so they say…we’ll be tasting it later today) the 5th day after you make it. So, it gives you plenty of time to make it, decorate it, stack it, etc!!!! It made my life soo much less stressful, because now I can make the cake on Monday, carve/stack it Tuesday, frost/ganache it Wednesday, Fondant it Thurday and decorate it Friday! And it’s done for Sat but without staying up until 1am in the morning!!! So, from now on…I’ll be making variations of mudcake with either white chocolate ganache filling or milk chocolate ganache filling. I’ve found what works for me. As a mom who is doing this for fun, these options allow me to still be a mommy!
2. Another thing I discovered is that when using the black edible ink pens, wait until the last minute to write on the cake/decorations. I made the banner (with the airplane) on Tuesday and wrote out the “Happy Birthday Easton” on it before I put some tissue under it so it would dry rippled. However, as the days went on and the gumpaste dried, the ink started spreading a bit, not giving me the crisp writing I had before. It would have been hard to write on it rippled, so, I’m not sure how I would have done it different, but if you’re writing on a semi dry (but not completly dry surface) it will smear/run just a bit!
3. When you make ganache and want to keep it slightly warm to spread but you need to take a break (to be a mom – haha), don’t put a lid on it until it’s competly cool! It was nice and warm the day before yesterday so I put the ganache outside, but put a lid on it (so bugs and such wouldn’t fly into it). When I went to get it and touch up the cake, the chocolate had seized because the moisture/condensation dripped into the chocolate! So, I couldn’t touch up the cake because I was too lazy to make another batch! HAHA But, it turned out fine, so I’m not going to worry about it!
4. When making decorations for your cakes, even if out of fondant, make them a few days in advance! I had made all the decorations ahead of time and it was so easy to put them on the cake because they were nice and stiff (and easily hid imperfections in the cake). I didn’t make the purple mountains ahead of time and it was so much harder to get them on the cake without warping/moving all around…and they allowed any imperfections in the cake to show through. So, next time I’m going to try and make as much as possible ahead of time because it’s so much easier to work with. Oh, and even after the gumpaste has dried for a few days, it’s really easy to trim up/straighten thereby giving you better angles.
5. A little trick I discovered…when putting fondant/gumpaste decorations on the cake, instead of using a paint brush with water, use a q-tip! The q-tip stays moist giving you the perfect amount of water (so it’s not dripping like with the paint brush at times), and, if it gets dirty or gets color in it, throw it away and grab another one! That was a easy, time saving thing I discovered!!
6. I don’t know what’s up with me rolling out fondant, but I keep doing it TOO thin!!! The blue was like 1/8″ again!! The brown was much better, and looked better!! I need to remember to ROLL IT THICKER! Also, regarding marshmallow fondant, you CAN overcook the marshmallows! I got sidetracked and didn’t stop it after 30-40 seconds to stir it. When I did stop it, it was all funky looking! And got really thin. I still used it because I had to, but it make the fondant a bit stiffer. So, don’t get side tracked…stay with your marshmallows as they cook!
All in all I’m really happy with the cake! I got great edges, nice and crisp! I carved all the sides down a bit so I had a nice smooth cake to ganache! It would have been nice to have put another coat on (of the ganache), but hey…it’s for my son and he didn’t care!! I think I’m obsessed with this…I had to get out of bed last night at midnight just to look at it again!!!! LOL! I just love it…it’s like all my joys wrapped up into one hobby!! I get to build, design, do artwork, take pics of it, and make people smile! It doesn’t get better than that!! Thank you Lord for bringing the cake world to me!!
Oh, and here is the original plan for the cake…you can see the street wrapping around it…would be fun to try sometime!!
Oh my goodness! How adorable, you are amazing!
Amazing… absolutely amazing. I am literally speechless!
Wow! I don’t even know what to say! That was so incredibly good! You need to be on the food network channel!
That is SICK! Ok, I normally don’t use that word, but seriously, it’s fantastic!
WOW!!! you are so talented!! I can’t wait to see what you think up next!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! That’s all I got. Seriously, amazing!
How did you make the 2?? Awesome cake!!
It’s made with modeling chocolate. I formed it, put a couple toothpicks in the bottom of the “2”, then let it harden at room temp for a day or two. Then, I stuck it in the cake with a dot of melted chocolate to help it stick.
Thanks!