Race Track & Railway Cakes- {A combined 30th Birthday}

My hubby had a combined 30th with a mate, and I made the cakes. I used Bakels cake mixes in White Chocolate Mud, Chocolate Mud, and Caramel. For the icing I used a mixture of Betty Crocker in Chocolate and Vanilla, home made buttercream (the green icing), and black fondant. Licorice and Tee Vee biscuits were used for the railway tracks, and all he signs were printed and laminated at home. For the Kit Kat cakes I used family blocks around the edges, 4 for each cake I think it was.
Here are some pics 🙂

 

Minnie Mouse Party

Today was my nieces 4th birthday party, and I have to say, my sister did an awesome job putting it all together. The theme was Minnie Mouse in pink, black, and zebra print. It looked fantastic! So good in fact, that I got a heap of (pretty darn average, sorry!) photos to share!

Inside, a buffet table was set up with all the food and decorations.

This gorgeous table centrepiece was made from a pink tin bucket, some fake flowers, pipe cleaners, ribbon, and polystyrene balls that were painted black and sprinkled with glitter. So cute!

Pretty jars were filled with lollies, and everyone got to fill a little pink box to take home.

Themed balloons, so cool!

And the cake! This was my sister’s first time using fondant, and it was left over from the monster high cake I made my daughter. I think it looks amazing!

And the inside looked pretty darn good too. 1 chocolate cake, with a coloured butter cake on top. It was a bit of a hit 🙂

My first time…..using fondant that is!

My eldest daughter is having a disco party at the local RSL club tomorrow, and her request this year was for a “Monster High” themed cake. I knew that fondant would probably pull off the look we wanted to achieve, but I had NO experience with it what.so.ever!

So, I decided to dive right in. I went halves in some supplies with my sister, as she will be making a cake in similar colours in a few weeks, and I set off on my fondant adventure. Please excuse the mobile phone pics…the camera seems to have gone walkabout!

I first baked 2 choc/rainbow cakes, using the same process that I outlined in a previous post.

Once the 2 cakes were baked, I chilled them, and trimmed the tops so they were relatively flat, then stacked them on top of each other, on the cake board, with a layer of buttercream frosting between them. I then coated the outside of the cake with the frosting, being careful to create an even coverage, and smooth surface.

While the cake chilled, I coloured my fondant.

I took a moment to print a template for the top of the cake.

When ready to cover the cake, I rolled out the blue fondant to form a large circle, big enough to cover the top and sides of the cake. I used the rolling pin to then lift it onto the cake gently. Sadly, I wasn’t gentle enough and there were some tears….ooops! I had to patch these up as best as I could, but they are still visible on the finished cake. I smoothed the surface with a smoother I purchased at the catering shop. I rolled out half the black, cut some strips with my pizza cutter, and used water to stick them on. I then put some ribbon around the base of the cake to hide the dodgy bottom edge 😉 I also drizzled some black writing icing down the sides.

Next I rolled the rest of the black, and cut around the template. I stuck this piece to the top of the cake with water. Then I cut out the next section of the template.

I stuck this on top of the black background, before cutting out the last piece at putting it on the cake.

I went around the edge of the scull with pink writing icing.

The finishing touch is one of my daughters dolls placed next to the cake.

Overall, I am totally thrilled with the results, especially considering this was my first time working with fondant.

One VERY useful tip I received from a cake decorator acquaintance, was to keep the cake in a plastic container with some Hippo moisture absorber to keep the fondant from sweating.