My First Fondant Cake

So here it is, the real inspiration for starting this blog - my first fondant cake! I've been a big fan of baking for years and have always loved making cakes. For Matt's last birthday, I decided to try my hand at a carved cake in the shape of an acoustic guitar. I loved it, but the buttercream icing was tedious, and I felt like I could have decorated with much more detail had I used fondant. But fondant also seemed...scary.

I started doing research to better understand the do's and don'ts of fondant. Duff makes it look easy on "Ace of Cakes," but I knew better than to believe that. I started pricing out all the tools and gadgets I would need to get started, and it was just too pricey to do off the cuff. So...I made a request for my birthday, and my mom and my brother came through BIG TIME. They stocked me with all the supplies a girl could want...and then my grandmother cleaned out her cupboard to give me all of her old shaped pans. You should have seen my happy dance!

I decided it would be "safe" to try out the first cake for myself. Yes, I made my own birthday cake. Actually...Matt and I made it together. He is very artistic, so he is a big help with the free-handed stuff! We had a blast...made some freshman mistakes...but the sign of a good baker/decorator is the ability to improvise and "fix" those mistakes (so I have learned). I was so thrilled with the final result and am ready to make tons more now! So...with no further ado, here is the first cake...

First, the inspiration - my new birdy necklace that Matt gave me that I adore (I like to call her "fat chick"):

And the cake with a fat chick topper:

I am now searching for any and every excuse to make a cake...so watch out!