Birthday cake!!!....

I spent all day making my birthday cake for tomorrow. I had so much fun. It was so much harder than I thought it would be. I have never made a tiered cake and really have not made many cakes at all. Let me tell you something.....the hardest thing about it is shaping that stinkin' cake into an even form. The second hardest thing is icing the cake smooth. I could not do it for the life of me. The cake is a Freckled Mocha Cake (mocha with chocolate pieces throughout) and the filling is a chocolate-hazelnut filling. My inspiration was from the baking book The Whimsical Bakehouse. I really love this book. It is so informative.

The steps were to make the cakes. The top is a 6" and the bottom is a 9". Then you have to cut the cakes after cooled. The 9" is only sliced in two with one mousse filling layer. The 6" is cut into 3 layers and has 2 layers of mousse. It is also supposed to be topsy-turvy on top. The bottom is supposed to be a perfectly round, smooth cake but I came considerably short of that goal. =( The next step is to crumb coat both cakes and refrigerate.

After this process I started melting all my candy melts. This was sooo time consuming. After they are all melted you then use a template or free-hand your candy decorations. You have to outline first, add small coloring effects, and then cover with more candy. The ones that are just white and funky have not been flipped over yet.

Then I mixed up my colored icings and iced my two cakes. I had to learn to measure dowels and cut them with shears to place into the base cake for stability.

Then I stacked them and added cloud trim on the base of the top tier and then green trim on the base cake to cover the boards and make it look nicer.

I do not like cakes covered completely in fondant (although I do want to do one to teach myself) but I don't like the taste much. You cannot go wrong with good ole' buttercream frosting and a lot of it. So my cake is lumpy and definitely not smooth. Thank goodness for decorations.....The finaly cake.....(drum roll) Ha ha!!I used too much frosting to adhere my sun and you can see it. That bothers me alot, but....overall I am really pleased. It is not as pretty as what I had in my head but I think it is pretty and with practice I hope to make them better and better. I cannot wait to see what Clara's 1st birthday cake is going to look like!! I cannot believe November 19th it will be one year!! I hope I did not bore you to tears writing about the cake preparation but I just LOVE it!! I would love to start doing it on the side (when time permits) for a fun-paying hobby!