ELEPHANT BABY SHOWER CAKE

Whew! I’m exhausted!

I did a few adjustments and new techniques with this cake.  I’m using higher quality (albeit more expensive) ingredients, and I’m taking much more time and mental effort to make sure my cakes are straight and the highest quality covering I could do.  I think it paid off, because I’m extremely proud of this cake! The bottom tier is covered with handmade pure vanilla butter cream only at the client’s request.  I usually don’t do butter cream without fondant; but paired with the upper fondant decorated tiers, it still looks balanced.

CAKE BREAKDOWN

Bottom tier: Marbled french vanilla and devil’s chocolate cake. Hand made pure vanilla Butter cream frosting only.

Middle tier: Marbled french vanilla and devil’s chocolate cake.  Hand made pure vanilla Butter cream frosting.  Fondant with fondant decorations.

Top tier: Hand carved to unique diameter. Marbled french vanilla and devil’s chocolate cake.  Hand made pure vanilla Butter cream frosting.  Fondant with fondant decorations.

Elephant decoration: Rice crispy treat, dowel rods, fondant.  Hand painted and sculpted.

Amount of time on cake: 8-10 hours including baking.

Amount of supplies: $50-$60 (not including cake stand and pre-owned decorating/baking tools.)

PLANS

The invitation on the left hand corner shows the color scheme.  Originally, I planned to do both elephant and girl decorations at the top of the cake.  I settled on the elephant only because it turned out so darn cute and I wanted her to be the main focus.

THE FINAL PRODUCT:

TROUBLESHOOTING

I had a bit of a rough time with the fine lettering.  My first try was to use a small tipped icing bag with black tinted piping gel.  I couldn’t get the piping as small as I needed, so I went ahead and hand painted the lettering with a gray piping gel.  Figured black would be too high of a contrast since there is no other black on the cake.  My newest goal is to learn how to do very fine piping.