Ain't 8 GREAT...continued a couple of days late.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Ok, ok...Imma couple days late doing the 2nd part of Jayla's birthday post. But in my own defense, we had Jayla's birthday party on Friday night and by the time we got home, I was BEAT! Then yesterday, we were at a soccer tournament all day and my daddy left to head back home. And again, I was tired.

SO...here I am today. Better late than never, I always say ;).

Alrighty, now back to the reason for this post. GUESS what I did? I made Jayla's birthday cake this year. I know, that's not that big a deal. But Jayla "requested" that I make it. Originally, she asked for a 2 or 3 TIERED cake. However, once I convinced her that she was turning 8 and not getting MARRIED, I was able to change her mind a bit. Anyway, her request wasn't simply that I make her cake. She wanted the layers to be 2 separate flavors (one devils food and the other white with confetti) and wanted me to cover those layers in...you ready for this? She wanted ME to cover the cake in fondant. Now this child can often be found in front of the TV watching the Food Network as well as other cooking channels. But her favorite shows are, the Food Network "Challenges", "Ace of Cakes, & "Cake Boss". So that's where she got the wild idea for *ME* to use fondant.

I'm up for a challenge! Let's do it!!  This year we didn't really have a "theme"...we had more of a "pattern". Jayla is on this polka dot kick, so that's what we went with. Here's the front of the invitation that I made. The details of the party are on a striped background...similar to the Thank You card, pictured below.

The Thank You card.

Ok, here's how things progressed with the cake. First, there's no picture to prove it, but the 10" layers came out PERFECTLY!!

#1 "Dirty iced".

#2 Big ball of Fondant.

#3 Fondant rolled out. (Note, for quite a few weeks, I priced all the items I'd need to make this special cake. And a fondant icing roller was one of those items. The cheapest I found this special roller was $20! So I decided against that purchase...especially since I don't plan on using Fondant again any time soon.  Then I read on line that a piece of PVC pipe would do the trick just as well. So after spending $2.13 at Home Depot, I had my own version of the "special fondant roller"! It worked PERFECTLY!)

#4 Fondant draped over the pre-iced cake.

#5 Smoothed fondant covered cake. (I was REALLY proud of this part) :-)

#6 Beginnings of the decorations.

#7 Taa-Daa...The finished cake!

#8 All lit up at the party.

#9 Inside :-).

Well, what do you think?

I have to say, I was really pleased with how this cake turned out. One, because it's been a LONG time since I've made a cake larger than 9" round. And two, because I've never used Fondant before. As I may have mentioned, I use to be a cake decorator at Kroger many, MANY moons ago. But we never used fondant. And another interesting thing came about with regards to this cake. As I was lighting the candles and we were singing happy birthday to Jayla, this lady, who was with another party came to our table and started taking pictures of the cake. Then she asked Mister M, where we got such a beautiful cake from. He told her that I made it. She then asked me if I made them for other people. I don't, but I gave her my contact card anyway. Who knows, I may get an order one day :-).

So this was an experience for me. Although my forearms are STILL sore from rolling out that hard mound of icing.

Oh, and one last picture....

Some of you may remember me telling you what a "funny man" my dad is? Well, as we were leaving the place where we had Jayla's party, I had my hands full with the left over cake and a couple other items. My dad walks up and asks if I need him to help me carry anything. As I'm about to answer, he takes the cake topper from me and sashays towards the door, LOL.  Of ALL the things he could've taken from me, he takes the lightest thing. And he holds it up in front of himself, as pictured, and walks out the door. You should've seen how  people were looking at him. He's a NUT!! :-)

ANYWAY, I think that's it for today. But before I go, tell me about something new YOU made or created, that you were really pleased with the turn out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.