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1/2/08

Polka Dot and Harlequin Birthday Cake

It's a busy day today in our household! TWO birthdays will be celebrated tonight. Today is officially the birthday of my youngest child, who is turning 12 today and ever since last year as requested a 'polka dot' cake this year.

Always one to plunge ahead and try new things I finally decided to work with fondant and see what I could do with it. The photo shows the end product. It's not perfect, but then again I'm just an average American housewife... not a pastry chef.

I used icing as the base for both cakes, but if you don't have financial constraints in place you can buy large amounts of fondant and get a smooth base by using a large sheet of fondant, smoothed completely around the cake. *Note* the flavor of store bought fondant is less than appetizing, so for that reason many people don't like the flavor of cakes covered with it. You absolutely can make your own fondant... and perhaps I will someday, but I really just wanted to buy it this time and see how it was to work with before forging ahead with homemade versions.

I used a delicious frosting for my base and although not completely smooth, the flavor is delicious!

I need to give a huge thumbs up to the white cake recipe I posted below. My review is that it is amazing! It will probably be one of the most used white cake recipes in my house for at least the next few years.

For the cake above I used one box of neon colored fondant which looks like this;



I used a base of frosting colored blue and used the purple colored fondant in diamond shapes to decorate the bottom layer. I finished them off with tiny dots made of the yellow fondant. For the upper layer I used 2 - 8 inch square cakes with a layer of raspberry filling and icing between them. I colored the frosting turquoise and finished it with pink and yellow polka dots. Using the fondant I cut strips and made them into ribbon shapes and small curled ribbon strips by wrapping them around pencils and letting dry overnight.

Place the decorations on the cake by wetting the back with water and on top using a bit of frosting as the 'glue'.

Give it a go! What do you have to lose?




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