I baked three layers of a new cake recipe I recently found in a cookbook, cannoli cake. It was a little something different, yet tasty with a good flavor. The recipe called for cutting each layer in 1/2 horizontally and adding a ricotta cheese and Marsala wine filling. The cake was then stacked and iced in white butter cream icing -- as smoothly as possible. She is not a fan of fondant, so I wanted to use it as minimally as possible.
The third and top layer, I cut out to make a cushion. The "cushion" was iced in buttercream and covered with hot pink dyed fondant. A fondant tufted "button" was added to the center, and I used an ice pick to etch the faux stitching.
I dyed black fondant to create the dog and saved a little white fondant for her eyes and mouth and also to make the black and white leopard print snuggie to wrap around the doggie and coordinate with the animal print base of the cake. I rolled out the remainder of the black fondant and used a basic kitchen knife to cut out leopard-inspired stripes and applied these to the cake base. This was not too difficult to do...I simply took the knife and cut free form stripes with a little curve to get the animal print feel.
In creating my dachshund, I searched and searched online for cakes with dachshund themes, as I did not want to make just any dog. I only found one; a tan and white version that the artist had taken pretty clear close-up shots of and posted on a message board 6 years ago. This proved helpful for getting me started. Keep in mind: this is the first time I have attempted any sort of animal, and I don't really recall being particularly skilled at molding clay animals in art class in elementary school either! I thought it turned out well for a first attempt.
Another cake first was the bow. I have never attempted to create fondant bows (aside from the Relay for Life remembrance ribbons for the cupcake fundraiser and that was totally different). I dyed a deep purple fondant (I wanted to use a lime green but the store was out of that shade of green at the time) and rolled it out. I measured a couple strips to wrap around the base of the cushion. The bow took a number of attempts to create. I don't own any fondant books and have no training on it, so it is trial and error based on my sketches and examples I have researched online.
I do need to invest in a couple of good fondant applications books, if anyone has any suggestions.
( By the way, The "W" was purchased at my local Hobby Lobby and was the only non-edible cake deco piece on the cake.)
Wild about Dachshunds!
Kate & Emily also made off with a present also.
My Aunt Linda gave them each a couple hundred
silly bandz and kindergartner Emily and I had a counting
lesson. She did a pretty good job with her numbers too!
