TA DA!!!!!!!!

My final cake is done!!!!!!!!!! WHEW!!!! What an amazing weight lifted off of my shoulders. 

I am kind of in love with it. Well, as much as one can be in love with a cake (especially when you can see all the flaws, but you know how much work went in to it). 

Just one more little reminder before you look at my cake. I am no expert!!! So, it has flaws and there are definitely things I would do differently if I did it again. BUT, this is my very first 2 tiered fondant cake, AND it is only the second cake that I have ever covered with fondant. I am in a "beginning" class after all. 

And now that you are all prepared to be underwhelemed 

.............(Imaginary Drum Roll Please)...............

The moment you have all been waiting for............

TA DA!!!!!! 

(As my super cute niece Kemry would say)

I just love the color of blue that the top tier is covered in. I have some fondant left, so maybe one of you will get a random blue cake. :)

Here is a top shot of my final fire flower. The lighting in the room was weird, so it looks a little more saturated than it was. 

I thought it was fun to put this star on a wire so it looks like Mario will have to jump for it the way he does in the game. 

Lessons I learned or things I would change if I make this cake again:

• I am super glad I didn't decide to do 3 tiers for this project. I would be crying right now. Two tiers took plenty of time. 
• Hindsight is 20-20. I wouldn't do the "Bricks" on top of the bottom tier, or at least I would do them differently. I'm really not very pleased with them.
• It is hard to get powdered sugar off of some fondant. I really over dusted the fondant I was working with for the same bricks mentioned above. I'm sure you saw they were a powdery mess.
• Make sure you always tape your foil or saran wrap down to your board before you put the cake on it......duh. I swear, sometimes I think my brain just leaves me. 
• I would make my star thicker so the wire doesn't show through. Also, another, duh moment.
• My characters and scenes are not super proportional, but I'm ok with it. Next time, I need to make sure I take that more into consideration, though.
• I would try not to let Mario flatten out too much. But, with that being the first character I have ever modeled in my life, I'm ok with it.
• It can be hard to let people eat what you have worked so hard on. Lyle keeps asking to eat a goomba (the little mushroom guys). First of all yuck, it's just fondant. Secondly, I just think they are too cute! But, I guess it's either eat it or throw it away. 

As cheesy as this sounds, probably the best thing I learned is that I am more capable than I give myself credit for. I know, I know, my cake is not perfect, my skills are not perfect, but they are quite a bit beyond what I thought I was able to do. If you had shown me a mario cake before this semester started, and asked me to make it, I would have laughed in your face. But, I think I proved to myself that with a practice and patience, I can do some cool/hard things. :)

Bottom Layer - Check!

First of all, I have to say "Holy Cow!" What a stressful, fun, tedious, and did I mention stressful, night it was. I stressed out about whether I could successfully make chocolate fondant or not; how I was going to fit an entire scene on a cake, taller in my head; Mario may be way too big for this cake and I may have to redo him. But, I do have to say, for my very first decorated-however-I-want-it fondant cake, I think it isn't too bad. :)

It will probably make more sense with the other tier on top (I sure hope it does). In Mario, there are levels that he goes to through pipes. In my mind, they are underground. So this layer is supposed to be a sneak peak at those layers. 

Well, it's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it regardless. I am so close to getting done, that I almost want to stay up all night just to finish it..... almost....... :)

Now, I just have to get it to my classroom disaster free. 

Mario is born.....well kind of

Today in my class I made Mario, the star of my cake. I found this picture online: 

And I thought, "Sure, why wouldn't I be able to do that?"

So, I modeled my Mario after this one. I was really afraid that I wouldn't get it right, but I think he is close enough (and not the pinterest-close-enough-jokes, close enough). He is flatter than the Mario I modeled him after, but I haven't done this before and it was easier to let him squish half way down. 

Now, I just need to figure out how to stick him on my cake.....

I also made this little goomba guy. His eye is a little weird, but that's ok. I still think he is pretty cute. :)

Working on my Final Cake

Now, I don't mean my final cake ever, just my final for my class. Lyle has requested that I make a Mario cake. I am required to have at least 2 tiers and 3 decorating techniques. So, I am going to do fondant work, a little piping, and a gum paste flower. I may also try to use color flow somewhere, but that's not working out as well as I would have hoped (so if anyone has any Mario color flow ideas, let me know. Color flow was used to make the bird and butterfly on my previous cake if you need a reminder of what it is). 

Anyways, the gum paste flower is supposed to be representative of the fire flower on Mario. 

The only problem is that this:

Is not a particularly exciting flower to make, and I really want to do a large gum paste flower. So I am working on a compromise. I am going to make a 3D version of this flower that is more intricate than just circles. And it will look something like this:

 (I'm sorry if you saw this on my Facebook page and are already bored with it) 

This is the first time I have made this kind of a flower. I wanted to do a peony style rose because it has more of a balled up center, and I will probably put little eyes in it like the previous picture. Plus the petals allow for more of a fire ball look too. 

I have not been using the "correct" tools to make this flower. The kit to make a peony is $27.00 and it only contains 4 cutters and a "veining" tool! Isn't that a little ridiculous? I think so.

This is most definitely not my final flower, I have a bit more practice yet. I want the red on the final layer to be really bright, and it will need to be a little bigger still. I am soooooooo excited about it, though. 

Stay tuned for more projects as I work on completing my final cake. :) 

Spring Has Sprung

For my most recent cake (I finished it just today) I had to put a basket weave all the way around it, cover it with royal icing flowers (5 of 7 different kinds of flowers) and have a color flow butterfly and bird on it. I figured since spring is right around the corner, I might aw well make this cake as springy as my heart desired. 

Ultimately, I really enjoyed making this cake. The flowers are a little excessive (but it was a requirement) and my basket weave is a little less than desirable. I have learned that I have very little patience for tedious tasks, like making a basket weave around an entire cake. That is something I really need to work on. :)

My favorite flowers were definitely the wild rose, daffodil, and pansy. I could not make a good daisy to save my life and I really didn't do the primrose well either. 

I did use my in-laws recipe for a chocolate sour cream cake. It was perfectly dense for decorating and it's super moist! I love it! One day when I have time, I will share the recipe with you.