French Vanilla Cake - Cake Decorating Isn't for Sissies!

This is my first fondant covered cake. The flowers are fondant and gum paste/fondant.

Michaels Course 3 - Gum Paste and Fondant - week 3 we covered a square cake and learned how to make daisies and mums. 

The cake and buttercream icing are made with Nielson Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. The fondant and gum paste are Wilton. We used the 20" wide glide rolling pin and the roll-n-cut mat to roll out the fondant for the cake.

Rolling fondant takes some serious muscles! I swear, my arms were aching the next day - I couldn't believe it. Cake decorating is not for sissies! 

Wilton Decorating Basics

In February, I took the Decorating Basics course at Michaels - four weeks, 2 hours each Tuesday evening and this is the final cake. It was a dark chocolate 2 layer cake made with ruddy red cocoa powder. The recipe was found on All Recipes website, it makes three 9" cake layers but I only used two of them as the third one fell on the floor! Surprisingly, the mishap was only followed by a mild temper tantrum and a few bad words which I am not proud of but I gathered myself together and moved on. The little flowers at the bottom of the cake were made ahead using royal icing. The roses on the top were made with buttercream at our last class.

I had made the chocolate cake before - in October I made it for my husband's 50th birthday cake (posted here).

It is a delicious rich chocolate cake and goes well with vanilla buttercream. 

This chocolate also made an appearance in my sister's birthday cake in November - it was a Neapolitan cake.

This cake was great but it was a lot of work - I had to make 3 different 9" cakes - not sure I would ever make it again, even for my sister! 

If anyone wants more details, just leave me a comment.

Five Layer Neapolitan Cake

I made this five layer cake with strawberry buttercream for my sister's birthday in November - it was a big hit! It was inspired by Rosie at Sweetapolita If you want to try it out, the recipe and instructions are at the link provided. 
The layers are dark chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and between the layers is strawberry jam.
It was a lot of work but it was delicious and pretty.