Arantza's 10th birthday cake

Just came back from my niece's 10th birthday party.  She loved the cake I made for her.  The theme was puppies.

So with that in mind I scouted the internet and you tube for ideas.

 
So a week before the party I made the puppies out of fondant.

gathering the materials

Three of the four puppies

It took a while to get the forms, but it was like plating with play-dough, you just go with it.

Then on Thursday I baked the three cakes.  Up until that moment I was undecided whether to do a two tier cake or try for the three tiers.  So while I was baking I decided to bake three cakes. 

the three cakes

The flavors are basic yellow, chocolate and banana.  The chocolate cake got to a bad start because the first one I made I overcooked in the oven and had to throw it out and bake another one.Then as as I was stacking cakes, I didn't level the middle cake that well. I stacked, put the filling and crumb coated only to realized it was a whole inch taller than the other two.

So I had to cut it. Let me tell you, cutting into a cake already covered in buttercream it's a major PITA.

So, once the cakes were all levered I went into fondant mode.  I had to dyed in pink and blue so that took a while. I went ahead and cut out little bones out of fondant to do the edges.  So here's a pic of all three cakes already covered.  The two top tiers are already set.

And here's a picture of the cake all set up at the venue. Driving with the cake was nerve-wracking. I need a better system for transporting cakes. The shifted all over the back of my hatchback.

More pictures here in my Photobucket album.