Monday, August 11, 2008

Polka Dot Fondant

Last week was insanely crazy! My sister-in-law asked me to make a polka dot cake for my niece's birthday. She printed out some pictures and brought me a plate that she had based the theme off of. The cake she wanted required me to use fondant. Ughhh! I had tried that with Sarah's last birthday cake and only ended up being able to do the decorations with it. Sarah's cake turned out great, but I did not cover it in fondant because of the difficulties.

Anyway, I only had one package of fondant left and decided to try my hand at making more from a recipe online. Well, I was going to do a test run Tuesday or Wednesday but the little man got a nasty virus. He had temperatures ranging from 102 to 104. 6. He felt so bad and that didn't leave a lot of time for experimenting with the cake.

By the time Friday came, Ashton was still sick. In between crying bouts, I managed to make 2 layers of the cake. Daniel got a nasty migraine and had to retire early. That just left me and the poor, sick, clingy little man. He finally went down around 12:30 a.m. I then rolled out some fondant and put the bow pieced out to dry. About 1 a.m. I got ready to start on the next 2 layers. That all came to a halt when I realized that I didn't have any more eggs. Sleep deprivation and cooking are not a good combination! I gave up after that startling realization, cleaned the kitchen and went to bed.

The next day didn't start out too much better. Ashton was in a good mood during the morning but started to get a fever as the day wore on. Daniel had to go get Sarah, so it was just the two of us and a cake that needed to start coming together. I managed to the additional 4 layers made before Ashton got really clingy. Then during a drug induced nap, I made the butter cream icing. I later realized that I forgot to put in the vanilla. (Sleep deprivation...) I started leveling the cake layers out when the little man came back to life. Everything ground to a halt while I worked to get Ashton back to his happy place.

He went down again and I got the bottom layer iced. I ended up making a double layer cake for two reasons. First, I wasn't sure how many servings would come from one layer. I'm new to this cake thing and I come from a family that eats a baseball sized portion when it comes to cake so my measurements tend to be skewed. Second, I wanted it to look really cool.

Now back to the cake. I iced the bottom layer and prepped it for the fondant. Then, I started rolling out the fondant. It went pretty smooth for the most part. I got it on the bottom layer and then managed to get it mostly smooth. The perfectionist control freak in me hated that I didn't get it perfect, but the realist side knew that the polka dots would cover most errors.

Confidently, I started on the top level. I rolled out the fondant and placed it on the cake. It all went downhill from their. The fondant tore. The icing got really messed up. I was so tired that I wanted to cry. Then Ashton started. But, thankfully Daniel was now home to help out. I took a breather and started making the fondant. It was an easy recipe and I was very hopeful as I started putting it together. Then, I ran out of powdered sugar. Ughhh! Daniel went to the store and I kept working on the fondant. I don't know what happened, but the Internet chicks recipe didn't come out like what she described. The fondant tore so much that I couldn't get it to go in a layer. I worked on it for over an hour.

Daniel was so sweet. At 11:30ish, he went to Walmart to pick up more fondant. I was still trying to get the fondant to work, but gave up around midnight. Then my eyes focused on the damage that was now my kitchen and dining room. I'm not a neat cook by any means. I'm a good cook, but not neat. I thought I was doing good for a while. In between each cake baking marathon, I had cleaned up the counters and dishes. But when the icing and fondant portions commenced, it was so time consuming that I tuned out the dishes and the powered sugar that now coated ever surface in the kitchen and dining room. It was awful. Daniel started joking about my sugar trail but I was so tired that I only glared at him. I was too tired to clean it up for a fourth time. I went to bed and don't really remember Daniel getting home.

Sunday I woke up praying that Ashton was feeling better. Because he had a fever the previous day, we couldn't take him to church. Since the cake was not finished, I wasn't going anyway. I pulled out the new fondant and started working a pieced for the top layer. Disaster struck again and I had to abort attempt 2. I prayed and took a deep breath and started again. Thank the dear Lord, it finally worked. I only had one side that didn't flatten out enough to make me happy.

I put he bow together and then started making the ribbons, polka dots and colored balls. That part seemed to take forever. When it was done, I put it all together just in time for Ashton to wake up. I was finally finished!

Here is the the plate that it was based off of. My family loved the cake and I was happy to have made something so cool for my niece! It turned out so great that I may start doing it for other people. Even though it was hard, I got a kick out of pulling it together.

2 comments:

Alicia Looper said...

Oh my gosh! That is one of the cutest cakes EVER! I'm glad that it finally worked out for you and that Ashton is feeling better.

Dennis and Danielle said...

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE THAT! That's AWESOME! I never knew you could do such beautiful cakes!
You should make cakes to sell :)

Dani