Happy Birthday Shaalen!

Shanee's little niece turned one yesterday and I was asked to bake a cake. It was my first time baking a cake for a little baby so I gave the birthday girls mum a few pics which I thought would be pretty and fitting enough for a 1 year old girl. One was finaly selected and I got to work on it - the downside to all this is, I had ONE day! That means after work if I start - I would basically have less then 10 hours to work on it. So I decided to get a move on the cake soonest possible and as soon as I reached home I started on the batter. They wanted a rich butter cake so out came my mother's family recipe that has been past down generation to generation. I wonder if my daughter or son plan on being a pastry chef or will this butter cake recipe die with me? hmm.. 'cake' for thought. :)

Anyways back to my current story.

While the cake baked, I made my marshmallow fondant and started working on the flower petals. I did not have the exact molds so I pressed the fondant into my tart mould and as soon as I got the flower print, I hand molded them to make it look real enough. As for the darker pink flowers, I took some fondant and made tiny circles then placed them on my sponge and with the back of my spoon, I pressed it down to get that lovely petal effect. I put those together and filled the center with a lighter pink flower made from round balls and I then placed a little green ball in the center.

The topper was actually a ladybug - but it does not really look like your regular garden ladybug. It looked like an animated little bug you would find in your Play House Disney cartoons! But I found it soo cute anyway! I made the feet into a long snack that was about 1.5 cm thick and cut 4 even sizes of about 2 inches long. I placed them together and draped a 2" round sheet (light pink fondant) on it to form a shell. Then with the darker pink, I made small round shapes and placed it on the shell. The head was made from a green ball and I made the eyes and the mouth and stuck it into the body with 2 toothpicks. as for the antenna I took smaller slivers from the tooth pick, wrapped it in white fondant and stuck it on.

Her name was placed on individual hearts and lined up in front of the cake. 'Happy Birthday' was written on the cake board around the sides in pink.

By the time I draped the cake with the fondant and started decorating it, it was 5.15am! TIRED but very satisfied, I said a little prayer, blessed the cake and blessed the little birthday girl and into the cake box it went. The next day I delivered it and I hope everyone was happy with it! :)

Till' my next kitchen adventure, God bless.