Happy Birthday Mom

My mom's birthday was May 3, but we planned on having a family supper and birthday cake on May 5 instead so that my brother's girlfriend could be there.

I decided to put what I learned in the fondant making class to work. Remember this post from April 12? Fondant Class

Friday night I baked the cakes and made the buttercream frosting.  I found the vanilla cake recipe on Pinterest from this blog.

Cake batter before the whipped egg whites

Whipped egg whites

Cakes in the oven

Then I frosted between the layers and the top and sides of the cake with a lemon buttercream frosting.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting: 

1 cup room temp. butter

4 cups sifted icing sugar

3-4 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

zest of one lemon (leave out if you want plain vanilla buttercream)

Saturday morning I continued the cake making...

The next step was to make the fondant icing I learned to make in the class.  It was pretty easy until I rolled it out to place on top of the cake.  My husband had to help me out because I was so frustrated that the fondant kept sticking to the counter (shortening and icing sugar are your friend here!).

Once the cake was covered in fondant I rolled out the leftover fondant and used a flower cookie cutter set to make decorations.

Then I whipped up a second buttercream frosting, this time chocolate.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup softened butter

4 cups sifted icing sugar

3/4 cup sifted cocoa

pinch of salt

3-4 Tbsp. milk

I used the chocolate buttercream to pipe around the bottom of the cake to cover the fondant edge, and for the cupcakes I also made in case the cake was gross or we didn't have enough. 

Then I added the finishing touches to the cake and it was perfect for my first ever homemade fondant cake! 

Me with the birthday girl

*Since I couldn't eat my creations I have no idea how they tasted, but was told the cake was dense (probably because it called for cake flour), but the buttercream and fondant icings were delicious.