Jonathon and Cake

Happy Birthday Jonathon!!! Today he is 8 years old! I can't believe I have an 8 year old.

And....here's the cake he requested for his birthday:

While extremely time consuming, it was a lot of fun to put together!

And for cake lover details- it's apricot nectar cake with a lemon buttercream frosting (entirely too torturous to work with when it gets hot, but super yummy!) The towers are made of cardboard tubes rolled in icing and then topped with cake cones stuffed with marshmallows and M&Ms, and then a sugar cone turned upside down, stuffed with marshmallows and then frosted. The giant cupcake is all cake and frosting, just sculpted from two cakes baked in bowls. Lollipops are make from Candy melts and then have frosting people put on them. The doors and windows I premade from frosting on plastic wrap and then just placed them on the cake when dry. The "grass" is tinted coconut. And the pops are standing in foam board affixed to the cardboard base with icing.

This is definately not a cake I would transport anywhere- including 2 inches away on the same table, but it sure was fun. For any die hard cake decorators out there- I discovered a love for Viva brand paper towels- made by Kleenex. Once I put the coat of frosting on the cake and let it sit for about 30-45 min, you can use those paper towels to make it SUPER smooth! You just lay the towel on the cake, rub and smooth out the bumps and wrinkles, and then pull the towel away- Wala! The towel doesn't stick and the bumps are gone. There's so much on this cake it's hard to see how smooth the yellow frosting was, but believe me it worked like a charm- hooray for tips on You Tube! By the way, if you try this and it sticks, just let the icing sit a little longer on the cake.

There you go! Jonathon was thrilled! We'll see if it lasts until his party tomorrow! At least I got pictures!

Here's the back: