I started with two 9 x 13″ chocolate cakes torted and stacked. I first carved the rump and body of the hippo and then the head. I used cupcakes for the feet. After carving the entire cake was covered with buttercream and then covered in purple fondant.

The cake board was covered with green royal icing. The flowers are gumpaste. The tutu was made about a week in advance and allowed to dry over a dome shaped surface. The eyelashes, pearl bracelet, butterfly and tiara were all made of gumpaste. The tiara was painted with mixture of rum and silver luster dust, and then coated with edible glitter.

First Name: Linda
City-State: Crestline

To make the Zebra Striped Star Cake, bake three cakes of each size pan. I used a 6, 8, and 10 inch pans. Stack the cake layers using buttercream between. When you put the top layer on, cut it at an angle and then cut a hole in the center that goes down to the top of the second layer. This hole should be slightly larger than the tier that will be sitting in it. It will need to be slightly larger because both of these tiers will be covered in fondant and you will need to make sure you have plenty of room. For the top layer, just cut at an angle.

Put buttercream entirely on each tier and chill. While the cakes are chilling, get the stars cutout from gumpaste, attach the floral wires and let them begin to dry. Once the stars have started to get dry, I used a thickened cookie glaze (topa’s glaze) to put the zebra stripes on the stars. I then let them continue to dry overnight.

For the fondant, I used white fondant so there’s no need to do any mixing. I work my fondant until smooth, roll it out and begin covering my chilled layers one at a time usually beginning with the largest tier. Once all tiers have been covered, I put dowels in the first 2 layers so that the cake sits evenly. I also have cardboards under each layer for this purpose. Once the dowels have been inserted, I stack the cake using piping gel between the layers to make sure there is no shifting during transport.

All of the decorations and embellishments are made from buttercream. For a middle tier, a stamp is used to create a design outline. On the middle tier, I freehanded the zebra designs then filled it in with buttercream and smoothed out with a spatula dipped in warm water. The bottom tier is just random polka dots made with different sizes of round tips.

I used a larger size round tip to do the borders for each tier, changing them up on each tier just to give it more originality. As for the board, I covered it in the regular silver cake board paper, found the center then measured 5 inches away from the center to create a circle. I took a zebra bandana that you can buy at any craft store and cut it into 1X4 inch strips and hot glued them down along the circle I had created. I then did this again at 4 inches. Once I had finished this, I glued down a 10 inch cardboard so that the cake did not sit directly on the ruffles. I did not do the final border on the bottom tier until I had the cake secured on the board. Now that the cake is completed and secured to the board, I started positioning my stars to create a fairly symmetrical look.

The cake is a lemon-flavored Madeira cake. I have covered it with white readily-bought sugarpaste and used modeling paste to create the tree and its boughs. The main trunk was attached to the side of the cake and then I laid the rest of the boughs over the surface of the cake to have a sprawl of branches emanating from the main trunk. I used a knife to create the veins on the bigger boughs and trunk of the tree. I colored sugarpaste in 3 shades of red and used plunger cutters to create lots of blossoms in 4 different sizes.

Once the blossoms were dry, these were attached to the cake using confectioners’ glue. I started with the bigger-sized blossoms and used less of these in proportion to the smaller-sized ones. I also attached a red sugarpaste ribbon and bow at the base of the cake.

I did this cake for my sister’s birthday. It was a long time since my sister celebrated her birthday with the rest of the family because she lives abroad. This year she was with us, so I wanted to mark this year’s birthday with a special cake. My sister is a vibrant young mother of 2 kids and runs her own business, so I wanted to show a blossoming tree in hues of red. This turns out very striking against the white background and black boughs of the tree. I chose red because it is her favorite color.

I do not have much experience in cake decorating and I have not had any training. I do read a lot about the topic and I must admit that when I approach a project, I plan it down to the last detail. I started doing my
own cakes when the local caterers let me down with my son’s christening cake and a year later with his 1st birthday cake. When the cakes were delivered, the writing was completely smudged and I was too embarrassed to display the cakes on the main table. I said to myself “If this is what they can do, I can do better”. Two years later, I try to come up with special cakes for every family occasion and for me this is an achievement.

First Name: Kristel Jo
City-State: Naxxar, Malta, Europe

This was my first ever go at decorating a cake. I spent hours looking on the internet for inspiration, and couldn’t find the perfect cake, so I ended up taking ideas from about 5 different cakes to come up with the final concept.

I used Petinice ready to roll icing and food colouring to make the animals. I started 2 weekends out from my son’s birthday by making the giraffe and the elephant, then one weekend out from the birthday I made the Zebra, monkey and the letters to spell out ‘HARRY’. This was a great way of doing things as it meant on the weekend of the party, I just needed to bake the cake and roll out the green icing as the characters were all ready to go – really took the pressure off!

The birthday boy loved his cake and I felt really pleased with my efforts- now I can’t wait for Harry to turn 2!

First Name: Claire
City-State: New Zealand

This cake is the sixth cake I’ve ever made and/or decorated that I’ve made especially for my mother’s wedding.

It’s a three tiered hexagon cake positioned on a 17-inch fountain set with a 15-inch Styrofoam base, a 12×5 inch tier of french vanilla cake with strawberry filling and 5-inch crystal pillars separating them. The last tier was a 6×5 inch triple chocolate fudge with strawberry filling. The tier was topped by one of two cake toppers. The middle cake of the tier had 1/8th inch dowels for the support of the upper tier.

There were also two cakes in front of the tiered cake and these were His and Her cakes. It included a set of stairs and a bridge in the center to connect the two cakes. The second cake topper can be found in the middle of the bridge. I also added a third stairway that led up to the largest of the tiered cake that I’ve also topped with a “groom” and “bride” doves on each side.

I used white homemade butter cream icing with clear vanilla and butter extract. The butter cream was smoothed using a paper towel and fondant roller, leaving an elegant design on the icing. I then piped the
vines using a homemade medium-thick butter cream icing. On the vines of the cake, I added ruffled leaves to give it a more appealing touch.

There were 50 carnations and 100 roses used in this cake. The roses and carnations were made from gum paste and colored in purple and teal. I also added some shimmer dust to half of the carnations and half of the roses in opposite colors. The roses went along the bottom of the tiered cake alternatively while I placed the carnations on the top of the cakes and at the end of the vines. I also placed one on each side of the middle ladder.

As for the two side cakes, I did the same smoothing technique that I did on the tiers. However, I used a rope border on top by striping the bag and piping with a 21 star tip. I added stars along the top of the rope border to make it blend a bit more. I did a shell border on the bottom of both cakes and also piped hearts on each hexagon.

Few add-ons were the purple Wilton gel coloring to give the fountain a bit of color, ivy leaves to adorn the middle steps and silk roses for the table.

First Name: Charla
City-State: Spokane, WA

A good friend of ours was celebrating the 2nd anniversary of a successful kidney transplant, and his partner asked if I could create a kidney cake for him. I decided to make the cake a little more “realistic” rather than “fun”, although i did have a concern that the visual may take away from the flavor of the cake.

I made the kidney cake with two 8 inch round white cake layers with a fresh berry/cream filling. After stacking them, I carved them into a kidney shape and covered it with a berry flavored marshmallow fondant. The “tubes” and the “fat” are fondant, and the “veins” were painted on using dark maroon gel coloring. To write the message, I used yellow royal icing to tie it in to the urethra.

My concern about the how the cake looked negatively impacting the flavor proved to be completely unfounded since the cake was a huge success. More importantly, the visual of the cake became the focal point for a very frank and in-depth discussion about what he went through, how it was repaired. It turned into a cathartic experience for him and a learning experiencefor the other guests.

I LOVE the idea that my cake could do that!

Since this was my first attempt working with fondant, I learned a great many things. First and most important, I learned that fondant is not nearly as hard to work with as I had believed, and that anyone can do it. Second, fondant can actually taste good! Third, using the correct “fondant tools” will cut your working time greatly.

Suffice it to say, that I LOVED working with fondant, and overcoming my fear of working with it has opened the door for a great many ideas I have for future cakes. It is so much fun to play with, and the artist in you is able to come alive.

Thanks for letting me share this cake with you!

First Name: Kipp
City-State: Los Angeles, CA

To make the cake, I started by hand kneading the fondant to the perfect shade of soft powder blue (my daughter picked the color) and covered the entire cake with it. I also used extra stiff yellow butter cream frosting and a open star tip to pipe two layers of shell border around the base of the cake.

I had originally planned on using my new cricut cake machine to cut gum paste & fondant decorations. But unfortunately, I was unable to get the machine to work properly. Ultimately, I ended up copying the designs free hand. I used hand kneaded yellow fondant for the swirl pattern which I centered on the top of the cake and did a similar simpler swirl on the sides of the cake. I added yellow gum paste flowers around the top
edge of the cake as well as a small cluster of flowers on opposing sides of the cake.

This cake was my first time ever working with fondant and gum paste. I had a great deal of fun with it, and am proud to show it off.

First Name: Kimberly
City-State: Cypress, TX

This tree cake was made for a 6 year old’s birthday that had a Tinkerbell theme. The base of the cake was made of Red velvet cake and iced with buttercream and marshmallow mint fondant. The trunk is made from homemade Rice Krispies Treats that is supported with a 3/8″ dowel rod and then covered with white fondant and airbrushed.

The top of the tree was baked in a doll form pan and iced with buttercream while the leaves were placed into the buttercream to hold them well. The leaves are all individually cut, airbrushed and placed on the tree one at a time. After the tree was assembled on the base of the cake, the grass and flowers were piped on the cake using buttercream icing.

From this cake, I have learned to build a correct base support with the dowel rod anchored to a piece of plywood. The cake was surprisingly steady, but transport was difficult due to the height of the cake.
This was my first 3D cake and loved every minute of it. I had no formal training, just self-taught with intent to take professional decorating classes.

By the way, here’s the recipe for the marshmallow mint fondant that I used on this beautiful Tree Cake:

1 (10.5 oz) marshmallows
4 cups of confectioner’s sugar
4 drops mint extract
1 Tbs water

Melt marshmallows in microwave safe bowl with water for 2 min in 30 sec intervals, stirring in between. In a large greased bowl, pour the melted marshmallows and add sugar 1 cup at a time kneading with greased hands until firm, yet pliable. To color fondant, add desired amount of food coloring to marshmallows while
microwaving.

First Name: Robin
City-State: Euless, Texas

This is my steampunk version of R2D2. The cake is yellow butter cake with chocolate buttcream frosting, then covered in fondant. I used four 6″ round cakes with 2 half ball cakes. The half ball cakes are on the top and bottom. The arm/legs are made from rice krispy treats covered in fondant.

The body has two different colored fondants as I had to cut the brown to wrap around the body. I used white for the silver parts that I hand painted with silver dust mixed with vodka.

I had a lot of fun making this cake since I enjoy trying to make character cakes. I always liked R2D2 when I was growing up and my grandson likes Star Wars so I decided to do a steampunk R2D2.

My grandson was so happy when I came into his house with this cake, he couldn’t believe that I had made R2D2 out of cake. I had to explain to my grandson about the steampunk part but he was still happy that it was R2D2.

First Name: Michele
City-State: Cape Coral, Fl.

This is just my second cake that I have decorated for someone using fondant and it was so much fun to see it come together. I had a friend ask me to make it for a baby shower after she had tried a cake that I had made for an anniversary.

The cake is a chocolate cake made from scratch that is very moist and is complimented well by the Bavarian cream filling. I have used coffee, chocolate, and vanilla fillings before but in this cake I just used chocolate and vanilla as more people like these flavors. The icing I used is Crisco based with a sweet, but creamy, texture. The fondant is also a homemade recipe using marshmallows.

I have had many people tell me that they hate fondant but love this one as is it not hard and gross tasting, but sweet and goes well with the frosting. I filled each layer with the Bavarian cream and froze the cake so it would be easier to frost and also keeps it very moist. After the cake is firm, I frosted it and smoothed with a flat spatula dipped in warm water.

The John Deere tractor is made using rice crispy treats and then I molded the fondant (I color the fondant as I make it) around the pieces and with royal frosting, attached the tires. It was easier than I expected but took longer, than I thought it would, since I had to let the fondant dry in order to assemble the pieces. The animals are made from just fondant molded like you would play dough.

They were very fun to see come together. This was the first time I had done animals with fondant. Cutting the grass and fencing went fast with a pizza cutter, and was easy to stick on the frosting while it stayed in place once you stuck it on. This cake was fun and exceeded my expectations.

First Name: Kendra
City-State: Manhattan, MT