The Cake!

It's done! I finished Little Man's Ninjago cake last night. Needless to say, it is not perfect but he loves it which is all that matters. There are several versions of this cake online but I originally saw this one.

I used what I had, which was two 9 inch cake pans and a glass bowl with a 9 inch mouth, or opening. I made three cakes and stacked with a thin layer of buttercream frosting using this recipe from the Food Network which was pretty tasty. I then covered the outside with a layer of buttercream frosting; I didn't worry about it being too perfect since it was doing to be covered with fondant.

I used this marshmallow fondant recipe, which the children also though was tasty. I also liked that there were only 3 ingredients. I thought about using fondant from the store but the kind I wanted was $20 for a little tub, and even with a coupon I couldn't make myself buy it when I knew I could make some for less than $5. I went ahead and made a double batch and I'm glad I did because we used almost all of it.

Zane in progress

I colored a small amount yellow with gel coloring for Zane's face. I rolled this out and pressed it into the icing on the front. I used another small amount for the eyes. I didn't have black so I mixed colors until I was satisfied. It is difficult to add several colors because it takes so long to mix them that the dough becomes sticky again, so you add more powdered sugar. This is like adding white to colored paint and changes the color so you're doing more kneading which can end up being too dry if you take too long. ARGH! I will also say one should probably use gloves for that part because my hands are now red! I blew up the face on my computer until it was the size I wanted (I trace off the computer all the time!!), then made templates to create the eyes which hubby situated on the face for me. I covered the sides with white squares and the front bottom with a long narrow strip. Hubby helped me with the largest piece and draped it across the top of Zane's head. This was gathered to the back where I attached a fondant tie to look like it had been tied in the back.

I didn't get the 'drape' to the front like I wanted and I think it's a bit more rounded than it should be but the overall look is cute and I think it is recognizable, which is a large part of it. I think the 'too rounded' part could have been remedied by just adding another cake pan layer to give it more height.

Overall, I don't think I did too horribly bad on my first attempt with fondant and I would probably try it again.