The CAKE..aka Our Ladybug Cake!

Making the cake, cupcakes and cookies for Kiddo's party was sorta like Cake and Cookie Decorating 101 for me this year.

I bought an excellent reference book, The Complete Photo Guide to Cake Decorating, which was an excellent resource for the how- to's behind Royal Icing, Fondant, Cake Decor and Cake frosting! If you don't have the time for the Wilton courses, this is an EXCELLENT book to teach you how to take yourself from how to make frosting to completing a wedding cake!

I had also saved a superb Royal icing recipe from Sweetopia's blog, and knew I would use it as the basis for my decorations for Kiddo's cake. Plus she has the BEST explanations, about how thin/thick to make your icing, depending on what you want to use it for!

So the first project was making the Royal Icing! 

The only thing is it doesn't tell you HOW much it makes! I ended with enough for all my ladybug decorations, for frosting and putting the decorations on the cake. NOT to mention, icing the cookies, AND I still had half a sherbert container left! OOPS. I now know better on dividing into smaller batches, when coloring icing!

For the record, making a true ladybug red icing, requires as much red coloring as making a red velvet cake! So go for the large bottle! Additionally, while the gel colors were VERY vibrant, they didn't go as far as the liquid ones. It really depends on how much you need and what look you want. Black is pretty much the same- I used a complete bottle of the gel black coloring for the little bit that I did!

FYI, Target has an excellent NordicWare Icing set (above) on sale in their Easter section for under $20 that includes the frosting bag couple and tip holder and 25 tips. It's not available online, so hurry and grab it before they're gone!

Second project was making the royal icing ladybug decorations for the cupcakes (inspiration found on Pinterest) and the cake itself:

Pretty cute huh? Red royal icing swirled into a ladybug shape. i let air dry for an hour, then went back with the black and made faces and dots. That would be 40 of the little buggers! I was tired of seeing red! 

Note: Parchment paper is your friend, as you can place the decorations on cookie sheets to dry, and get them out of your way. We have no kitchen counter space for baking, so I had to make them on the dining room table, so it was handy being able to put them on a cookie sheet. 

I also spelled out Kiddo's name for the cake board. In matching Ladybug dots of course! I then dried them in place on the cookie sheet overnight. The next day they had totally hardened up and were able to be placed in an air tight container (they can keep for up to 2 months, if kept in a cool dry place!).

Here's what the finished cupcakes looked like:

and what they looked like on their stand for the party:

Yeah I was impressed too! LOL

The third project was making the Marshmallow Fondant, to use with fondant presses I got off ebay, to make the flowers and leaves. Think cookie cutters crossed with playdough forms, and you're sorta close! 

I got my recipe from Clockwork Lemon, as her's was the simplest, and actually the tastiest I've ever had! With only 4 ingredients, it was also the simplest. I will have to say that it was SO easy to put together, it practically made itself. Then came the fun part. Adding color and kneading, and kneading, and kneading...

This was where my new Conimar Kitchen non-slip 18 by 24-Inch Helper Pastry Mat came in really handy (pardon the pun!). The size was PERFECT, and while no mat will by NON slip, when you are kneading over and over, it barely moved and I was quite happy with that! I love that the mat has pie crust sizes and measurements on it-reminds me of my mom's old Tupperware one. Except, mine if FLEXIBLE and easily cleans up, and rolls back up and goes into it's original container for easy storage! WOO HOO!

Note of caution: take ALL rings and bracelets off before kneading anything. IF you are adding color, you might want to wear thin food gloves. personally, I like getting the feel and knowing when it's right. I just ran to the sink and washed my hands of the dye, as soon as I was done kneading each section.

So this is what I had after kneading, dyeing, kneading, rolling and punching:

The white on the leaves is cornstarch. it is recommended that all punches/cutters be dusted in it, when cutting out fondant, to make sharp cuts. Easily removed with a cloth.

And yes, I cut strips of the orange (which was supposed to be daisy yellow- that's another story), and make strip roses. Sometimes creativity crosses craft forms!

The creature in the back started out as a frog. 

This is what happens when you have leftover fondant, and get creative and try to make something. It's is NOT as easy as the Cake Boss makes it seem!

Until everybody said it looked like a dinosaur, without his spikes.

Okey dokey then, let's add some spikes. Then everybody smiled and called him cute!

One of Kiddo's best friend's mom had been in the hospital for a week, and he'd been with us after school, and Kiddo wanted to do something nice for him. So since he adores dinosaurs, and didn't get his wish of a dino party for 2 years in a row, we decided to give him Dino after the party! How many times do you get an edible dinosaur? LOL

Now I had help, with a friend of Suz's making the ACTUAL cake, as she does it as a serious hobby, and it saved me trying to make a cake with everything else, and as I got to decorate it, it met Kiddo's qualification of a cake done by mom!

So fourth project was putting the decorations on the cake!

(the inspiration for the cake design was also found on Pinterest)

Using some of my leftover Royal icing, that had not been dyed, as glue, I got down to business!

Here's the front of the cake:

(the figure is porcelain, isn't she adorable?)

and here's the back:

(I loved Dino and ladybug staring at each other-reminiscent of the cookie episode!)

As you can see the fifth project was putting the name and ladybugs on the cakeboard. I was going to add a trail after the ladybugs, but ran out of time!

All in all the cake wasn't perfect, but Kiddo was beyond excited, claiming it was JUST what she wanted, and I was happy that my first attempt at 'real' cake decorating turned out so well!

i hope I've inspired you to give it a hand and make your own fancy cake too!