Elinor's 2nd Birthday - Barnyard Cake.

Still very proud of this cake even though it was one of my very first.

It was for my own daughter Ellie(Elinor) who was turning 2 at the time. She like so many other toddlers her age loves animals and the noises they make so it was only natural to make a barnyard type cake. 

I planned it for weeks.

I started making the flowers and animals out of normal store bought sugarpaste (or regalice as it's known in the UK). No Gum Tragacanth to help with stability. I did learn from making this cake that some tools are a MUST. Considering the only tools I had were some flowercutters and some wilton gel food coloring... I dont think I did too bad. 

Also this was my first 2 tiered cake.
A couple of tip's and nono's when it comes to making a tiered cake: 

• Read up on HOW to make one. Don't wing it....
• Do not use frozen fruits (they melt in the cake and pool at the bottom...)
• Use doweling(The cake will start to lean if not)
• Also look up some youtube videos on how to cover a cake (preferably with a turntable)
• Have some sort of thin flat plate between the tiers cut to the top tier's size. This is for when you cut the cake. with doweling under it is easy to cut and not have to worry that the bottom layer will collapse.
• And for goodness sake... make your life a little easier and splash out on some proper cake decorating tools!! 

So.... you guessed it. I did all of the nono's and none of the tips.

Well life is for learning if for nothing else, right?

The result was great considering all of the above. Ellie couldn't have cared less about the details that I was stressing over. She worshiped the cake. Her friends loved it. And her birthday was a success. Because I had done so much planning ahead of time I was able to take some of the actual birthday off and enjoy it at the play park with the birthday girl. Great day all round!

 Enjoy.

-J.