DIY Marshmallow Fondant Cake Part 3

Photo credit Liz Denmark Photography
This is the third and final chapter in my DIY marshmallow fondant cake tutorial. When I reported last, all I had left to do was bake the real cake, frost it, cover it in fondant, apply the polka dots and add some real flowers. I like my use of "all I had left" as if it was just a little task like putting on some lip gloss, grabbing my purse and running out the door! Ha ha ha. This part took a little bit longer than anticipated; partly because I only bought one 6" pan when I should have bought two; partly because artistically applying polka dots is difficult for a perfectionist; and partly because I was exhausted. With that being said, I think the cake turned out fabulous.

Here are the rest of my instructions...

1. I used a boxed cake mix and store bought frosting, and I am glad of this! Or else, I would have been totally behind the eight ball whipping up buttercream frosting and mixing cake mix. I'll work on perfecting those areas later but the lemon cake and lemon frosting was a hit, EASY to work with and took no time to put together. As I baked my cakes in the oven, I made my own raspberry filling to use in the cake. Figured it went well with lemon cake, and is refreshing for a spring bar-b-q menu.
   
   
2. I took the same steps to cover the actual cake layers with fondant as I did to cover the dummy layer. This is another area where I ran into a little glitch. I used a 9 x 1 1/2 inch round cake pan for the middle tier, and a 6 x 2 inch round for the top tier. The extra half inch makes a difference. A HUGE difference. Be that as it may, I trimmed the top of the cakes to make them flat, spread my raspberry filling in between layers, frosted and covered the middle and top layer in the marshmallow fondant, trimmed the excess fondant off, smoothed the fondant out, stacked the layers on top of each other, wrapped them in ribbon and completed the cake!



3. At this point it was about one in the morning and I just forgot to take pictures. But I dyed my extra fondant using Wilton icing colors. I tried to match the colors from the invitation, which is tricky to say the least. I made an orange, fuchsia, yellow and lavender dough for the polka dots. Using Wilton round cut outs, I cut different size shapes from the different colored fondants and glued them onto the cake by lightly brushing one side with water. The bigger circles covered the corners where I tragically butchered the fondant, and the smaller circles covered any other blemishes. Next time I decide to use polka dots, I'll sketch out a pattern rather than deciding on the spot where to place them on the cake. My poor brain just doesn't function well under that type of pressure! A plan helps to make it perfect!
   
   
4. The last part of my tutorial is adding fresh flowers to the cake, which was done day of. My husband picked up a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store, and the colors he picked complimented the cake perfectly. Big kiss to my awesome husband!!! I cut the flowers and stuck 'em in my cake. They helped to really cover up anything that looked weird in the fondant. Then I poked the birthday candle in the center of the top tier and voila!

Photo credit Liz Denmark Photography
More on the amazing photography of Liz Denmark to come!!!
Like I said before, for my first time making a cake like this, I think it turned out fabulous! Were there imperfections...you bet. But the more you do something the better you become at it. So, I look forward to making more cakes and watching them improve!!! DIY marshmallow fondant cake was a huge success!