Half-Birthday Cartoon Cake

As a tradition, my sister and I have always enjoyed celebrating half-birthdays.  We never do anything major for half-birthdays, but we at least acknowledge them, and sometimes we make each other little cakes.  This year, instead of making a mini cake, I decided to make a half-cake for my sister's half-birthday.  In my head, I was sort of picturing the "un-birthday" cake from Disney's Alice in Wonderland, so that was my inspiration for this cake.

To start, I prepared a cake mix according to the directions on the box, poured it into two six-inch pans, and baked it for 40 minutes.  When the cake had cooled, I cut each layer in half.  I only ended up using three of the halves.  Once they were filled, stacked, and frosted, I covered the cake with fondant.  

Initially, I thought that I would cover the whole cake with one piece of fondant, but I ended up changing my mind at the last minute.  I rolled out a strip of fondant (about 4 1/4 inches tall and 19 inches long) onto a piece of parchment paper.  Then I cut the parchment paper to be the same size as the fondant strip, lifted the whole thing up and stuck it to the cake so that it went all the way around, meeting in one of the corners.  Then I peeled away the parchment paper.  This left a little bit of excess fondant on the top (since the cake was only 4 inches tall) so I folded it down onto the top of the cake. 

Next, I used half of a cardboard cake circle to cut a semi-circular piece of fondant to cover the top of the cake.  (It didn't need to line up perfectly, since I knew it was going to be covered with white fondant later.)

I used my clay extruder (with the biggest circle disc) to extrude the white strips of fondant for the "frosting" that looks like it is oozing out of the cake.  I attached it to the cake in a random wavy pattern, pressing it up/down with my fingers as I stuck it to the cake with piping gel.  The clay extruder isn't really necessary for this part - you could roll it out in your hands instead, since it doesn't need to be a consistent thickness throughout.

For the top section of white "frosting," I rolled it out in my hands, intentionally making the thickness inconsistent.  Then I attached it around the top edge of the cake with piping gel.

For the back (flat side) of the cake, I used a flat disc in my clay extruder to make the lines.  Again, the clay extruder isn't completely necessary; you could roll out and cut straight strips of fondant.  I also added an additional strip of pink fondant on the top edge of the cake.

To make the "whipped cream" that the cherries are sitting on, I rolled out strips of fondant in my hands and coiled them up.  For the cherries, I used pre-made red fondant (Wilton Decorator Preferred), made a ball by rolling it in my hands, and then poked a hole in the top with the top of a paintbrush.  For the stem, I used a small amount of brown fondant, rolled it in my hands until it was really thin, and attached to the cherries with a dab of piping gel.

To make the candle, I rolled a log of white fondant in my hands and poked a skewer through it, leaving a small piece of the skewer sticking out of the top for the flame.  Then I used the clay extruder to make a long strip of blue fondant and rolled it around the white part, attaching it with a little bit of piping gel.  I made the flame by putting a small amount of golden yellow food coloring into a little chunk of fondant.  I didn't mix it completely, because I wanted it to have a marbled effect.  I balled it up in my hands, and then stuck it onto the top of the skewer.  Then I pinched and twisted the top of the flame until it had the shape that I wanted.  I used a tiny piece of white fondant to make a wax droplet and attached it to the side/top of the candle with piping gel.  Then I stuck the skewer/candle into the cake.  I also sprayed it with some edible glaze to make it shinier so that it would look more like wax.


The last thing that I did was attach some confetti sprinkles to various parts of the cake using a little bit of piping gel. (Have I mentioned how much I love confetti sprinkles?)   And that's it!  

Happy 25 1/2 birthday, Tonya! :-)