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.

Fondant class

I recently took a fondant icing class offered in town.  I know it seems odd for me to take a class where I learn how to decorate cake when 1) I can't eat cake because of the gluten, and 2) I don't eat cake because it would wreak havoc on my weight loss goal, but .  I LOVE baking and have wanted to learn more about frosting and how to use fondant.

First we learned how to make our own fondant icing, which was cool since I thought you just bought it at the store.  The instructor asked for someone to combine the ingredients to make the fondant and no one was jumping up to do it so I volunteered. I figured if I was going to do this at home, I should practice first and get a feel for it.

After the fondant was made (it was so simple!) we frosted cupcakes with buttercream (YUM).  I felt good about my results, especially when a lot of the other people made huge messes of their own cupcakes during this step.

After the buttercream was on top of the cupcake it was time to put on the fondant, which is where it can get tricky.  I am extremely picky about appearances so I didn't want lumpy fondant.  I think for my first time the fondant looked pretty good!

Then we learned how to use different icing tips and techniques to decorate the fondant with pink buttercream. 

I made one for my mom (the "M"), one for my dad ("D"), and one for my husband.  I couldn't eat the cupcake, but I did taste some of the leftover fondant icing and it was soooooooooooooo wonderful.  I am going to bake my mom's birthday cake and decorate it next week so I'll let you know how it goes and post some pictures.