first fondant cake

My very first cake covered in fondant. I've been baking for years, but my attempts at decorating were, well, let's leave it like that.  My hand was not steady enough for buttercream piping, the way my grandma used to do, and I thought it was too labor intensive.  I tried using spatulas but it was always a huge mess.  I knew my cakes were good, so I was focusing more on flavor than in decorating them.  Until I started to watch Ace of Cakes.  I saw them (the bakery crew) working on fondant and it looked easy.

So I looked around for a recipe for fondant, found one, made the fondant.  Then I baked this little cake and decided to try.  I was so pleased with the results.  For a very first cake, it looked smooth enough.

The main reason for me wanting to start focusing a bit on decorating was my niece.  For two years that I went to her birthdays and had to endure a Walmart sheet cake that taste like, well, like a cake bought at Walmart.  After the second birthday enduring this crappy cake I told my sister-in-law that I'd bake my niece a cake for her next birthday, so I had the motivation to start practicing.  After a few disasters (luckily, only a few) I felt confident enough to try and bake my niece her princess castle of a cake.

Looking back, I wish I had done a few things differently, like the towers, but I tried to make the most without going  broke. Still, I feel proud of this cake. For a first effort of stacking, pipping and whatnot it wasn't too shabby.  This cake was only my 5th or 6th effort at working with fondant. 

I've put together a "Catalog" of sorts where you can see these and other cakes I've done.  I'll try to update the catalog as often as I can. And I'll try to post other pics of older cakes here as well. 

 https://sites.google.com/site/arioscakes/home