Birthday Cake for Chino

Jimmy's Birthday Cake

Cakes are a labor of love.  I think I could spend all day making and decorating one 10" cake.  I don't typically make cakes covered in fondant. They look really nice, but no one really wants to eat all that extra sugar, do they?  Fondant is all about the presentation.  My friend asked me to make her husband a cake for his birthday.  I do believe the amount of time I spent on this cake surpasses any other cake or dessert I have made in my life.  Perhaps it wouldn't have taken so long if I didn't have to cover up the mistakes I had made.  After I assembled the cake, I covered it in marshmallow fondant. As I placed the fondant on top of the cake it immediately started ripping and cracking.  It was one of those I want to cry moments.  I didn't have time to deal with the disaster so I put the cake back in the refrigerator.  I googled "Cracks in Fondant" to see if I could somehow salvage this wreck.  Some people advised taking the fondant off carefully and rolling it out again.  As I tried to take the fondant off, I realized it wasn't going to happen unless I wanted to take parts of cake and frosting with it.  At this point, the only thing to do was cover the cracks.

Either I have poor technique with rolling out homemade MMF or the MMF itself is difficult to work with. The jury is still out - I will have to test the store bought stuff.  On the bright side, I worked with gum paste for the first time.  I bought some Satin Ice Gum Paste - what a great product!  From reviews that I read, it is one of the better tasting store bought products and easy to work with.  I had a lot of fun making the cake topper out of the gum paste. Imagine play-doh for adults except you have to mix in your own colors.  Very fun.  I did see Duff Goldman's line of cake supplies at Michael's. It was pricey ($19.99 for 2# tub) for fondant so I may be reluctant to try it in the future.  If anything, I will try the Satin Ice brand for $12.99 first.

Jimmy (aka Chino) hasn't seen the cake yet.  I hope he likes it and realizes how much love went into it. Bake with love. XOXO.

Looking Good, until...

Horrible Mess!!

Cover up the mess...

Made from gum paste