10.01.2007

Flying Phoebe

Definitely the most non-rushed, relaxed cake I've ever done...but I suppose that's also just the benefit of getting it done the night before. :) We figured since the cake was for a party at 4:00 on a Thursday, that it would be best to finish it up the night before so we wouldn't have to scramble the day of. Which, by the way, makes it SOO much easier. This was probably the most fun I've had making a cake so far. By doing it on Wednesday night we were able to just relax and and have a good time. Of course, Kelly did all the hard work on the days leading up to that. She already had the cakes baked and icing prepared, so all I had to do was come over and help put it all together! Woo-hoo!

We had her son take a few pictures of us while we were "in the process". I always have the intention of taking pictures in progress, but am usually rushing around and never get a chance to. So it was great that he snapped a few for us. At this point Kelly was working on the fondant (all the bright colored strips and dots you see on the table) and I was finishing up icing the cakes and putting in the dowel rods. The rods act as a support for each layer so that when they're stacked up they don't sink down from the pressure. You can only actually see one of the layers in these pictures. The other ones were off to the side. And how about that make-shift cake stand, eh?? .. Ok...yes, it's an upside down pot.... one of these days I'll get a real turntable, but for now it works. :)





Once we finished that we were able to get the cakes stacked up and decorated. We ended up changing the design slightly. But, then again, my cakes never come out exactly as planned. It's always a matter of using a little improvisation. We ended up not using the diamond pattern for the middle layer because we were limited on the amount of fondant. (If you have no clue what I'm talking about, refer to my previous post.) So what we ended up doing instead was just making crazy strips to go around that layer. It turned out really cute too.


The other pictures below are of Kelly working on the cake topper. If you've read my previous post, the cake we were making was for her doll club called The Flying Phoebe's. So for the top of the cake she created the club's mascot (see the picture up top) out of gumpaste . The pictues below are of her painting it. You can see some flowers on the left. We were trying to paint those and incorporate them in to the cake, but it just didn't work right with the style... so we 86'd 'em!




Once we put it all together I think it turned out really great. Below is the final product (sans the actual topper):



The polka dots, stripes, and balls are all made out of fondant. The rest is buttercream icing, including the number 20. We also used the buttercream as a filling. Each tier of cake is actually a different flavor too! The bottom is butter yellow, the middle is lemon, and the top is white with confetti. (The lemon was definitely my favorite!)


Below, on the left, is us after a long night of decorating. If I remember right it was about 1am when I finally left her house. If you look above my head, taped to the cupboard is the sketch of the cake. Its always good to have it up where you can see it so you can refer to it while decorating. On the right is the picture of the cake at the actual party. You can see the Phoebe mascot on top. :)