Adventures in Cake Making

Have you ever seen the Netflix show: Is it Cake? Well we have watched all three seasons as a family and are big fans. So for the girls birthday I decided early I was going to try my hand at cake baking. Now I have NEVER made a layer cake, nor have I ever used fondant. But after a few YouTube videos and about a month of mental preparation I went for it. I set aside two days to complete this. The girls were having their birthday party the Friday before their actual birthday. I had thought about doing a tester cake for that weekend then the real one for their actually day of birth... BUT I really didn't want to have to go through that much cake so decided no practice cake, just do it. 

I searched and search for two decoy squish mallows that didn't have too much detail to give it away that it wasn't cake, and simple enough that they could maybe pass as cake. 

Thursday was baking day, so I got to work. The girls wanted a cookies and cream cake so that's what I did. I double a recipe and baked the first three cakes. 

Realizing that wasn't going to be tall enough I had to again make a double batch for 3 more layers. So I already had 2 9" baking pans and got two more 9" pans.... I should have just gotten 4 6" pans and I wouldn't have had to make so much cake. Awe well I figure if this is the worse oopsie I do then that is a success. 

I leveled all the cakes with my new cake leveler saw. So I considered paying someone else to make a cake... and perhaps it would have been cheaper in the end. Probably not though. I spent about $200 to just get the supplies needed. But hey now I have them and can make lots more cakes, lol. 

Starting to layer them. You can see my decoys in the background. 

Once they were all stacked it was time to cut them down to match the shape of a squish mallow. Oh here is the YouTube video I watched step by step - she makes it look so easy. And actually it was pretty easy. 

This was all I did for day one. I wrapped up the cake with its crumb layer of icing and popped it in the basement fridge under a paper sack to hide it! This was all a surprise for the girls, they just knew I was making a cookies and cream cake but not the Is It Cake part. 

So with so much cake shaved down I had TONS of leftovers for cake pops! I think in the end we made like 50 or so. They were also SOOO good! 

The girls helped me that evening make our first batch. I even printed some cake pop stands on my 3D printer :0) 

Day 2!

Friday was also devoted to finishing the cake... however things got planned and started to get in the way. First off was an elementary tour of Thomas's new school for next year. Then I got distracted with the plant sale at school, there was something else I can't remember now but my window for cake finishing was getting shorter and shorter and I was starting to worry... Never fear because this last part really just took me one hour, phew!

Got the fondant out. Had way more than I needed but I wanted to be safe. It comes in a tub, like clay and is hard. You have to massage it and work it to get it warmed and pliable. Once I got it rolled out I covered the cake and smoothed it in. I don't think it would have been as easy without a cake spinner so I'm glad I invested $17 in that. 

Then it was time for the details. I bought 2 tubes of yellow fondant, a small package of black fondant, and a small package of peach fondant.  

  

Literally just followed the YouTube video so anyone could do this. 

Tada! Isn't she a beut!?

Next to the decoys. 

It was so cute I hated to cut into it. Our Is It Cake? Game was the first thing we did when the girls go home because I didn't want to have to keep it hidden. 

The after photo: