When my kids' birthdays come around, I get excited to think of what kind of cake I'll create. We've seriously been talking about it since Lexi turned 1...what kind of cake would she like when she turned 2?? :) She has a fetish with dogs, buckles, and shoes. But a dog seemed to make the most sense, and I wanted to see her little face light up at the sight of seeing a doggy. I found lots of cute inspiration on Pinterest... (it is SO fun searching for cakes on Pinterest!) and then I came across this design on this blog. She said it's a Debbie Brown cake design, and got the tutorial from a cake decorating book. I thought it looked simple enough to wing it, and luckily, it worked! I also usedthispicture as inspiration.
I mixed up 2 boxes of yellow cake mix, and poured them into a large greased glass Pyrex bowl, and a small glass Pyrex bowl, to the top of each. I baked them longer than normal, until they were golden brown and set. The cake doesn't rise much, and bakes very dense. I prayed that they would stay in tact when I turned the bowls over onto the counter, and they came right out perfectly! Whew. I wrapped them up and froze them overnight.
The next morning, I made up two batches of Marshmallow Fondant, using 2 10 oz bags of mini marshmallows, and 1 bag of powdered sugar. One batch I left completely white for the dog's body (I had been planning on making the dog tan, but white is just as cute and tons easier!). The other batch, I divided and added different colored gels to get the colors I wanted. I love doing pastels- so easy! The brown was a little trickier, and just like the monkey cake last year, I ended up adding cocoa powder to the fondant to get the desired shade. The powder kind of messes with the consistency and elasticity of the fondant, so I thought it was ruined. But I just rolled it out, and it worked just fine. Whew!
I used an overturned cookie sheet covered in foil as the base. Ideally it would look the cleanest and most presentable covered in fondant, but I hate to waste all that fondant! Then I placed the large dome in the back, and the small dome cake in front. I cut the top half of the large dome off so that I could spread frosting in the middle, but as I was doing that, I was kicking myself and totally hoping it wouldn't fall apart on me. The other silly thing is that I bought 2 tubs of chocolate fudge frosting, because I had planned on the dog being brown. Now that it was white, the chocolate frosting was a pain! But I frosted the 2 cakes, and then covered each one separately with a circle of fondant.
For the 4 paws, I used Little Debbie chocolate cakes that I found at the store. Ideally, I would've just baked some cupcakes with the cakes, but didn't have enough cake mix left over. I figured storebought was just as easy. I covered those each separately with fondant, and then just placed them next to the body.
Yay, I was so happy when it started to look like a dog! I was thinking all was lost there for awhile. That's what I love about cake decorating...it's a work of art, and at the beginning it just looks like nothing or a big mess, but it comes together in the end. It's all in the details, too. After doing the face (luckily my sister in law Jana let me use some black fondant she had bought- it is so hard to make black fondant!), tail (just a big blob of fondant), spots, and ears, I just had fun adding details!
Since Lexi loves dogs, shoes, and buckles, why not include them all in one cake?? I wrapped little pink fondant shoes around the paws and added shoelaces...haha. I'm such a nerd. Then I added the buckle on the collar, with a little heart tag that said Lexi Y. Threw in the flower, bone and ladybug, and some grass on the dog's bum to cover up fondant imperfections, and called it a day!
The actual cake assembling and decorating took about 4 hours. It was fun, and although I debated whether to do it, I'm glad I did. Even though Lexi's not even a huge cake lover or dessert eater, I just wanted to see her face when she saw it. It was hard to keep it a surprise while I was working on it after she woke up from her nap, but she kept coming in and smiling and saying "Doggy, doggy!"
We took the cake to Brittney's house to celebrate Lexi and Brittney's birthdays together, and to have a fun family celebration.
Lighting the 2 candles and getting ready to blow.
It was worth it! I'm glad I can be creative every now and then! Happy Birthday to our sweet girl.
