Zoe's First Birthday - ladybug cake

OCTOBER 2013

For Zoe's first birthday I didn't want to go too overboard - has to better each year right?  I found some themed items that I used as the basis for the decorations and the cake....

The top tier was once again a fake tier so I could make it earlier.  I covered a foam circle with light pink fondant and used skewers as support for the banner.  Spotty straws slotted straight over the skewers and were finished with some pink fondant.  The banner itself was gumpaste on wire which was pushed through the straws to stay in place.  This picture shown here is my first attempt which wasn't the right colour purple.  I made a couple more (as back up) in a lighter lilac tone.

The lettering is FMM brand in ''funky".

I tried using cereal treats for my sculpting of the ladybug body to save money on the fondant.  It was much easier than I thought and easy to cover in buttercream and fondant.

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Up till now I could make things in advance, but once the top layer was finished I had to wait until it was party-time.  The final touches to the top layer were vertical stripes.  I used the perspex rulers instead of the Wilton ribbon cutter this time.  I actually think I prefer it this way, but maybe just need more practice with the roller.

The cake portion (bottom tier) was a 12inch chocolate mud cake filled with chocolate icing and covered in buttercream and white fondant.  I used pink spots to tie into the napkins. plates. etc.  On reflection the spots should have been larger.  Also, the fondant was thicker than usual as I'd hurt my back and couldn't roll it thin enough.

I also added some green leaves under the ladybug.  These were piped using buttercream using the Wilton leaf tip. 

I covered the board with white fondant this time and added some green buttercream stripes.  I thought adding green checkers (per the napkins) would be too overpowering for the cake.

This cake fed approx 70 people.