Daughters First Birthday Cake

by Jen
(Massachusetts)

My daughter loves butterflies, so I knew I wanted to use them in the cake. In addition, I was inspired by Ace of Cakes and their use of fondant.

I made the cake and frosting from scratch but purchased the fondant at a craft store. I dyed the fondant myself using food dyes.

I used 6 circle pans (6", 8", 10") and had 3 cardboard cake circles to place each tier on. I created the 3 cakes, individually and stacked them (using straws as supports) at the party. For each mini cake I applied a layer of frosting, then layed the rolled fondant onto it and gently shaped the cake, trimming the edges. I used cookie cutters to create circles and butterflies and applied them with sugar water to the white fondant.