Anyway, this is a picture of the cake I made for my daughter's 7th birthday party, which was yesterday.
Cake info:
3 layers (6", 8", and 10"), 2 cakes each, which were all leveled using a leveler
4 white cake mixes (12 eggs, 4 cups water, 2 cups applesauce) + pink, leaf green, and lavender gel colorings to 'tie dye' the cakes
vanilla pudding filling (8 snack packs)
6 batches of buttercream frosting (white, pink, turquoise, and lime green) - note to self: I made WAY too much frosting this time
4 colors of fondant (light green, pink, orange, purple) used for flowers, stripes, and bottom layer trip balls
26 pre-made royal icing roses in white and hot pink used for middle later trim
15 pre-made royal icing leaves (could have used more but I ran out of time) used for middle layer trim
watermelon sours, used for top layer trim and on cake wires
1 small handful sugar pearls, used on top and middle layers
4 viva paper towels to smooth frosting
2 dowels, cut to size and 2 straws, cut to size, to house the dowels - this helps support the layers. I am not sure how much the cake weighed, but my hands were shaking after carrying it to the party room
2 cardboard circles (6" and 8") for middle and top layer
1 cardboard cake plate
8 cake wires by Duff - the kids loved these. Will definitely reuse. Next time I won't insert them in the top layer, it makes the frosting sag a little bit.
I think my frosting smoothing skills have improved since the last cake I made, but there is definitely room for improvement. I think I get a little frosting-crazy when it comes to the crumb layer, so there ends up being way too much frosting in some spots,and then after I do the cover layer of frosting, it's hard to smooth it out again. Something I think just needs lots and lots of practice! I do use Viva paper towels to smooth it out as much as I can :)
I probably wouldn't do the roses again. They were about $.50 each and I think most of the kids picked them off and threw them away. I could have done fondant rope, or maybe even some kind of sour licorice ropes. I'll have to keep my eyes open for something that kids might like to eat, it's just hard to find the right colors.
The original plan I drew had a harlequin design on the middle layer. I wasn't able to find a cookie cutter anywhere, and just didn't have time to sit down a draw a template. I knew it would take a lot of time to cut out the fondant and I knew I would run out of time. The 'swirlies' aren't the best, but the kids didn't care - they loved it!
Overall, I'm happy with how the cake turned out. It was kinda nice to watch strangers walk by the party room and ooh and aah over the cake. It's nice to get a little praise every now and then :) But most importantly, when I asked my daughter if she thought the cake was OK, she said, "WAAAAAAY better than OK mom!!!"
