Ayla's First Birthday Cake

Nick's co-worker, Kristy, had come back to order a cake for her daughter's first birthday.  I was very excited for a repeat customer and happy that she thought of me for another cake.  Her daughter's party theme was jungle animals.  Kristy send me some pictures of the table cloth and party accessories so I could see them for myself.  She also made it easy on me by designing her own cake.  The cake she wanted was two tiers with the bottom tier decorated in stripes and the top tier decorated in dots.  Topping the cake is a giraffe that matched the party decorations and a candle in a shape of a one.  It is a super cute design and perfect for a little girl's party.  As for the cake itself I did vanilla with vanilla buttercream for both tiers and in between the layers.

I had a lot of fun making this cake.  I started on a Friday night with baking all the cakes and making the frosting after which I started on the giraffe.  I have to say making the fondant figurines is my favorite part of the process.  It is time consuming but it is rewarding and relaxing.  I forget about everything that is stressing me out at the moment when I start shaping the fondant into little limbs, figurines and etc... It's a perfect way to end a Friday night.

Overall, the cake took me a lot less time than I usually spend on a cake.  I actually noticed the improvement in my time.  It feels great when you realize for yourself how much you have improved.  I did have trouble when laying down fondant on the cakes.  I really need to figure out my problem with fondant.  Our love and hate relationship is getting in the way of my love of cake decorating.  I pulled through in the end and here is the finished result.