First of all, everything in this cake was made from scratch. No cake mix. No pre-made fondant. No jug of frosting. Scratch. I made 4 batches of cake batter. It took me forever, but the cake was amazing. My roommate Alisha Marie Peterson, was turning 22 on October 9th (the same day I ran my first and last marathon). If any of you don't know Alisha or myself, I would consider us a team of master chefs. We both thoroughly enjoy making stuff that is ridiculously hard. When most people would say, "Oh my gosh, someone made that? I could never do that." Alisha and I both look at each other and say, "We could easily make that. We have no training whatsoever and have never even seen it in real life, but we can make it better than the first guy by changing up this or that. It's going to be so awesome!!!"
Well, we have been watching season one of Cake Boss on Netflix and decided that we would make a cake like that someday. Then the thought popped into my head. Holy Crap! It's going to be Alisha's birthday. We decided that it was a great idea, and started planning. I researched all of the cakes that were actually on the show. Here is the website. http://carlosbakery.com/ I sent Alisha every picture of cake I could find that was at least 3 tiered. We went through several ideas. One of our earliest ideas involved smoke coming out the top, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to decorate the rest of the cake. What goes with smoke? A cigarette? A fire? A cauldron? (I secretly wanted a Halloween cake but that was vetoed more than once.) We X'ed that idea along with a beach cake (it's October) and gum-pasted flowers (Come on, I had a marathon in which to prepare. I couldn't waste all of my free time with this. Baby steps. Save something for next time.) Our final conclusion, a Topsy Turvy cake. After more online research, I found this link that teaches you how to make a Topsy Turvy cake. http://cakecentral.com/articles/6/how-to-make-a-topsy-turvy-whimsical-cake The directions were very straight-forward and easy to follow. Alisha decided that she wanted a chocolate and vanilla cake with cream puff frosting and fondant. I have used fondant before. (Shelby, my littlest sister, and I made cupcakes with black and white circle-y modern art looking fondant when we were on our cupcake kick last year.) From my experience, it tastes gross and is a pain in my keister. I did not want to do it. Also, it's expensive! Well, I did some more research online and found this little jewel. http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm Marshmallow fondant! I couldn't see anything is this three ingredient recipe that looked gross or difficult or expensive, so I decided to give fondant another try. I gave Alisha her assignment. Figure out what kind of decoration she wanted and to make ame a shopping list. Several days later, we had an idea and a rough sketch. Alisha photoshopped some different colors on a cake that we liked the design of and we ultimately brought this cake to life. It contains:
Alternating chocolate and vanilla layers of cake with cream puff filling, covered with buttercream icing and a layer of marshmallow fondant. Decorated with fondant attached with buttercream icing. Everyone loved it, especially Alisha.
