Buttercream Fondant & A Mini Birthday Cake

For our Double Birthday Celebration last week I wanted to make them both their own little cakes and cover them with fondant.

But then Wes informed me he doesn’t like fondant, and he wanted a big cake. Sooo we left the little cake making for baby girl. 🙂 I wanted to make a smaller “smash cake,” but I could not find little pans anywhere! I ended up using a Corningware dish and baking each of the three layers one at a time {Thanks for that idea Lex.}  Of course, like magic, this weekend I found a set of three small baking pans at Hobby Lobby for $5 – SERIOUSLY? lol – I bought them anyways. O well.

We got a sweet toaster oven for Christmas and it took about 20 minutes on 450 for each layer {these ovens speed up the time, so try 20-25 in a regular oven.}

After all the layers were cooled I used a bread knife to cut off the tops and make them nice and flat for stacking.

I may or may not have eaten some of the cake tops with some leftover Cream Cheese Frosting 🙂

I stacked my cakes with a layer of {FRESH} frosting in between each one. Any frosting is fine, I used my go-to recipe of 1/2 stick butter, 1 tsp vanilla, a “splash” of milk, and powdered sugar to desired thickness.

I flipped the middle layer over for easier stacking

I then added a thin layer of the same frosting all around the cakes – this gives the fondant something to stick to. I then put the cake in the fridge while I worked on the fondant {mainly because that’s what they do on Cake Boss 😀 – I’m sure it helps it to keep its form or something legit like that.}

I also made chocolate cupcakes by adding 1/2 cup cocoa to cake mix we already had

For my fondant I found a super easy recipe for Rolled Buttercream Fondant by Kelly. I was excite to try it because I thought maybe Wes wouldn’t notice the taste as much {even though he still got his own cake!}

Buttercream Fondant
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Yields:  WAY more than enough for a mini cake – could have cut this in 1/4 – I think these proportions are intended for a full size, multi layer cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 lbs [1 bag] powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
“In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup. Mix in the salt and vanilla flavoring, then gradually mix in the confectioners’ sugar until it is a stiff dough. If you are using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment. Otherwise, knead by hand. If the dough is sticky, knead in more confectioners’ sugar until it is smooth. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.”

I probably didn’t add quite enough powdered sugar – it needs to be THICK to not come apart later

“To use, roll out on a clean surface that has been dusted with confectioners’ sugar until it is 1/8 inch thick or thinner if you can.”

1/8″ might be ok for normal size cakes, but I think it ended up being too much for our little cake.

“Drape over frosted and chilled cakes and smooth the sides down, or cut into strips to make bows and other decorations.”

Cut excess right away so fondant doesn’t pull apart {mine started to crack because I was fiddling with my camera on my phone for too long 🙁 }

After covering my cake I wanted to add cute little pink dots, so I took a small amount of fondant and kneaded it with red food coloring. I was running low on time & couldn’t find the right object to cut with so I ended going with our heart cookie cutter for the big hearts and hand cut the little ones & “1” on top. 

The hearts were also a bit thicker that I would have liked.. prooobably should have practiced first.

Not too shabby 😛 {Photo Credit: Alexis Vandersee}