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. :)