The wait is over!

Brace yourselves, I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting for this post. I am happy to report the wait is over. My first fondant cake is here! Try to contain your excitement. My friend Mark graduated from college back in December, but one weekend I really wanted to make a cake, so he received a very late graduation cake. I used the same fondant from my last post to cover this cake with, and I did have to microwave it for a few seconds to get it nice and soft again. When you do this, make sure you only do a few seconds at a time. Ok, where was I?

I used the fondant to make some decorations for the cake also.

Had to knead the color into a small part of the fondant

I cut out small strips and wrapped them around the smallest cookie cutter I could find. *Hint* I was making little graduation caps

Side note, use gloves unless you want red hands for a couple days!

I set them to dry for about 30 minutes like this so the "tassels" would have some form.

After drying for 30 minutes , I "glued" the parts together

I let the fondant caps dry over night. The next day I baked my cake and got a batch of buttercream whipped up.

my mom let me borrow this amazing attachment for my Kitchen Aid and it is so awesome. It scrapes down the bottom and sides of the bowl so much better that the regular paddle attachment.

I did a crumb coat of buttercream on both layers of the cake. Since the fondant is going to be covering the cake, the frosting does not need to be pretty at all.

See? Lot's of crumbs, no big deal =]

I was extra crazy the night I made this. I decided to do the cake in two layers which was insane considering I had never even put fondant on a single layer cake! Oh well, go big or go home, right?

Had to roll the fondant back out, pretty thin

Obviously there was too much fondant, which is what you want. A fondant smoother is an essential tool here.

Working on the second layer, that white tool is the fondant smoother.

Before I assembled the cakes, I put a big dollop of buttercream on the bottom layer just to make sure the top layer didn't slide off.

I had a lot of trouble getting the corners to smooth down, they all ended up with a bit of a crease

Still need to work on my letter piping haha

I can't wait to do more practice with fondant! Mark brought his cake to work and here is the result:

I am taking that as a good sign =]

On side note:

Tomorrow is father's day, and I wanted to share this. I miss my dad all of the time, but days like tomorrow are always a little harder. I saw this posted on FB and I really liked it:

If flowers grow in heaven Lord, then pick a bunch for me; place them in my Dad's arms and tell him they're from me. Tell him that I love and miss him, and when he turns to smile, place a kiss upon his cheek and hold him for a while. Dad, I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU, HAPPY FATHERS DAY IN HEAVEN