50th Birthday Cake

So it was hard for me to follow instructions with this cake because I would have liked to do the bow in fondant and then added some piping or something on the base but I followed the order which asked for real ribbon on top and a plain bottom. So I struggle to know exactly how much artistic license I have when I make cakes for other people. I think it is something I need to always ask about when I take an order. Anyways, this pink fondant gave me big trouble. It was so dry and broke really easily. My recipe got messed up because Walmart decided to stop carrying the larger size of marshmallow bags so I had to buys small ones and guesstimate how much would equal a larger bag and well it didn't work out as it should have. Lesson here: if the fondant is not quite right- its faster to make another batch then wrestle for hours with the bad batch you've got only to produce disappointing results.

Birthday Cake

This cake was a lot of firsts for me- first time being paid for a birthday cake, first sheet cake, and first time using fondant decorations on buttercream. I was given some paper plates that I was supposed to match to the cakes. It was fun and went fairly smoothly. I didn't put enough meringue powder in the icing so it didn't crust as well as I would have liked- I need to look at the recipe and measure things every once in a while. Other than that, it turned out well. I changed the color of the #1 on top at the very last- hence the two pics...