carved - I'm Topsy Turvy

Mad Hatter Tea Party birthday cake

When my cousin told me she wanted to throw a mad hatter tea party for her twins first birthday I was SO excited about it! I haven’t done a topsy turvy cake in a while and mad hatter just SCREAMS topsy turvy! She sent me this pin for color and ideas.

I hand carved each tier, air brushed the color and then hand painted the gold. I used fondant around covered wire for the handles and spout, which I made the day before so they could dry. I made a fondant pocket watch and LEFT IT AT HOME! My heart still aches that that didn’t make it on the cake!

The tea cup was hard simply because of the size, the tiny tiers are always tough because they are so small they don’t weigh much and tend to easily get pushed around.

Carving the teapot was of course the most consuming, I started with a ball for the bottom, and then carved the top. I used ganache to “glue” the layers together and hold the carving in place.

To get some fabric soft look to the hat I used buttercream under the fondant instead of ganache. The only thing I’d change about this tier would be to add another cardboard circle in the middle of the hat to help with the weight distribution. The weight of the super height of this tier lead to some tipping issues.

Don’t forget to link up your pinterest inspired projects in this month’s pinterest challenge!

Pot O’ Gold cake tutorial

Last year I shared my Pot O’ Gold cake, but I shared it the DAY of St. Patrick’s day so I figured there was no reason to share the tutorial. But THIS year there is still time so here it is!!!

Even a year later I’m still THRILLED with how this cake came together! This and my pumpkin are easily the best holiday cakes EVER (if I do say so myself) still trying to come up with the PERFECT Christmas cake….

Start with 2 half’s of a ball pan baked and an 8 inch cheesecake. The ball pans are always a little short of creating a full circle, SO I like to use a cake, or in this case cheesecake, to give it the height. Carve the top of all three so they are perfectly flat.

To get started cut a 4 inch circle off the bottom so you’ll have a flat bottom to work with.

Frost with whipped Ganache…

Flip it over, and frost the flat top.

Place the cheesecake on top and frost the other half of the cake with the ganache

Now you have your “pot”.

I cut the flat top off, because your going to be “filling” the top with edible gold coins you could leave the top. But I decide cut it, at about 6 inches wide.

Finish frosting the cake, I left the top UNfrosted at this point so I could flip it over later, you’ll see.

Roll out the black fondant, so you don’t get ripples as you wrap the fondant around the cake keep it pretty thick, just under 1/4″. This will be heavy, that’s why I always use very DENSE cakes, similar to pound cakes.

with the cake upside down (I used a 6 inch cake circle to hold it)…

Cover it with the black fondant!

Cover a base, I used three 6 inch circles to create a nice strong base that wasn’t too big.

Frost the top and cover with the edible gold coins. Then using dabs of the ganache add more coins until your happy with it. Roll out a long “snake” of fondant, and add it around the top of the pot. I use vodka, but you can also use clear vanilla when attaching fondant to fondant.