After my initial success with the Angry Birds cake for Matthew, my manager 'booked' me to make another cake for her elder son, Marcus =P It was a little confusing in the beginning as Marcus seems to keep changing his mind on what he wanted as his birthday theme....we started out with Pirates of the Caribbean (that would have been interesting, no? LOL!), then changed to Transformers (??!!!) and finally he settled on Mickey Mouse (whew!).
There were SOOO many inspirations for this theme, especially with the latest Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series running so rampantly on TV these days, but Susan (my manager) finally settled on a garden-like theme. She also wanted some cookies in that theme as goodie packs for Marcus' classmates (they plan to celebrate his birthday at school), so I started off early...
I started with the cookies first, since they take the longest considering the drying time and stuff. Susan loved an idea that she found online where there were cookies in the theme of Mickey, hence these pants....
Gloves...
Shoes (though I think I botched these a little...they looked more like kidney beans to me! LOL!)...
and Mickey silhouettes! I couldn't find cookie cutters of the other shapes (except for Mickey's head) so I had to hand cut the cookies. Although a tad tedious, it was still fun and cool to see the shapes come to 'life' (especially after icing them). Thank goodness the shapes weren't that complicated either, so I didn't have a really hard time cutting the shapes out with my flimsy knife. *makes mental note to get better knives ASAP* So worth it seeing them come together =)
The packaged cookies =) I borrowed Justina's heat sealer for the packs, and they were a cinch to pack! I LOVE the colors *grins*
I didn't have a proper bag / box to keep the cookies, but Mom remembered this picnic basket and it somehow looked perfect for the theme! Garden, picnic basket...get it? LOL!
And then it was down to the cake! I'm really proud of this little achievement...finally got to play with MORE fondant, and thank goodness it yielded good results! Took me quite a while to finish decorating it, but when it all came together, I sat back, took a look and heaved a satisfied sigh =) This was the photo that I posted on my FB page right after finishing it.
Cake is Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake, but I baked it in two 8-inch round pans. I then frosted the cake with Our Best Bites' chocolate frosting, which was so good by the way =) It was a chocolate version of the frosting on the rainbow cupcakes, but same light and airy texture and holds its shape REALLY well! I was especially worried that the fondant will sweat and melt with my previous almost-disaster of Susan's cake, but this frosting didn't need any refrigeration, so there was no hassle with melting / sweating! YAYY! The fondant used here was also quite nice...a bit more expensive than the previous ones that I bought, but since it yielded better results I am happy =)
Susan saw the photo on FB and IM-ed me, saying that she liked it but also gave me some feedback on how she would prefer the toothpicks to be covered with bushes, but I felt that it might get too crowded, so I did the next best thing...I made the toothpicks into stems and added little leaves to it to make them look more like flowers. Heh!
Cake was covered with fondant, and almost everything else were made from fondant....except the Disney characters =P I didn't have the courage to attempt these famous figures yet, and Susan managed to find small figurines from the toy shop so they did well for fixtures on the cake. Heh!
Also added the candle into the cake to see the final result =) I found this in ICCA...and it matched the garden theme and colors perfectly! Yes, Marcus turns 4 this year...such a lucky boy to be getting such an elaborate cake for his birthday! I'm probably jealous coz I don't remember having such a grand birthday...ever =P Kids are so lucky these days, aren't they?
These were my other proud achievements...I made little blue birds! I know, they are so simple and stuff, but coming from a so-called 'self taught' amateur baker, I find it quite an achievement. They were surprisingly easy to make after I've gotten the hang of it. I like this little effect on the banner as well...learned about a new tool called the Brigitte letter stamper. It makes the embossed words into the fondant...love it, and will probably use it more when I get the chance to *grins*
