Obsession?

I am completely engulfed in this cake thing right now! I spent my entire Friday night doing one of two things.

1. Making MORE fondant animals for E's bday cake
2. Browsing other blogs for recipes and ideas.
Check out these sites if you're interested in some cool cake and cupcake tutorials.
www.bakerella.com and www.allthingscupcake.com.

What a cake geek! :/ But as a result I am making a vow to try a new cake/cupcake/dessert recipe every week, whether my diet likes it or not. Now, this pledge is in writing. Hold me to it friends. Here goes....first up is cake balls/cake pops right after I try new recipes for E's cake, then oreo truffles!

I will be doing some reconstructive plastic surgery on my zebra since I single-handedly smashed his head trying to adorn him with chocolate buttercream stripes. RIP zebra head. But I did manage to add a lion and an alligator to the bunch so this "Fondant Fun Filled Friday" wasn't a total loss after all. Good night friends!

Fondant Fun

So, my little E-man's second, 2nd birthday is coming up (read: he is celebrating his 2nd birthday for the second time!, what a lucky kid). For his birthday in New Bern I made what I call a "cupcake pile". Two and a half dozen pound cake cupcakes frosted with buttercream and stacked to create a small mound on a platter, and covered in candles. He loved it! The cake was great, but I'm looking for something with a little more pizzaz! pow! wow! for his second party since I have time and no travel restrictions. I have experimented with fondant in the past, but as I expand my cake business I want to challenge myself to learn new skills and techniques. This is what brought me to my new obsession: making fondant animals!

I figured I would just give it a whirl and see how it turned out. My first two animals, a frog and a panda were admirable attempts, but lacked in the smoothness and scale department. I found them to be large for the two tiered, stacked, fondant covered cake I plan to make. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with the elephant, the zebra, a new panda, a snake and a butterfly. They will harden overnight before I put all the pieces together but I'm crossing my fingers until then. I also plan on making a tiger and a monkey, but let's see how this animal parade goes first!

My cake design will look a little like this one, with a zebra layer of vanilla butter cake with buttercream and a giraffe layer with red velvet and cream cheese icing. Right now I'm itching for a new recipe to try, so I'm online scouring the blog and recipe sites looking for a new, perfect yellow cake recipe and a moist red velvet different from the one I use now. Wish me luck blogworld! The party is Monday so check back for the results and more photos.