The "I HATE WINTER!!" Cake

So most of you who know me are well aware of the fact that I hate the snow and I hate, hate, hate winter! It prolly wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't soooooooo long. I just happen to be a girl who loves the sun, loves the heat, and could seriously live in a swimsuit and flip flops by the pool or beach everyday if I could. That being said for some reason I am living in a place where the snow just keeps on keeping on. BLAH! I decided my next cake would be completely opposite of a winter wonderland because frankly there is no such thing. :)

I know the design is a bit funky but I like it. I absolutely love, love, love my flower. The cake has elements that reflect all of the things I love; water, waves, flowers, sun and shimmer. All nice spring and summer things.

Now for the surprise, this is not really a cake. I decided to take a shot at making a display cake. So it's all styrofoam covered in fondant. I imagined covering a piece of foam a heck of a lot easier than covering cake but it was far from easy. Cake is difficult because it is not sturdy and can fall apart if you are not careful but the foam doesn't have any give to it so it shows EVERY little flaw in the fondant. I had the hardest time working out all of the bumps, tears, air bubbles, etc. There are actually two layers of fondant on each tier along with a layer of the blue. Glad I was able to cover it up. At one point I wasn't so sure the thing wasn't going to end up in the trash. I have learned though that with patience you can usually either fix or at least cover up most flaws.

 The flower is made out of gum paste.  All I did was create several different shades of the turquoise by mixing the food color with the gum paste. The darker shade has a little bit of navy mixed in.  Then I rolled out each in a circle and formed the shape I wanted using a foil cup.  I let each one dry enough so that they were still a little soft in the middle. This is so I could layer them without each layer being too hard which would make the flower stand out a lot more. It also made it easier for me to work with it without breaking any layers. I added the swirls and loops and center then dusted a few areas with edible dust and glitter.