I Won! I Won! I Won!!!!!!

I got first place at the Coker Fair Cake Decorating Contest for 2nd grade!  I got a blue ribbon and tickets to spend at the fair.  I am so excited!  I jumped up and down all the way home from school and I told everyone I saw on my way.

Decorating the Jungle Cake

I made the animals out of fondant.  I cut them out with cookie cutters. 

I used fondant tools to add details.

I painted spots on my giraffe with cocoa powder mixed with alcohol.

This is a clay extruder.  It can be used to make strings of fondant.  Here I am using it to make my lion's mane.

I cut the strings and put them around the face.

Here's my jungle before I added the leaves.

I decided it needed something else, so I asked mom to mix gray fondant.  My helper Sophie and I made rocks.  We put the leaves on too.

Success!!!

Here's my cake when it was finished.

Thanks for looking at how I made my cake!

Frosting the Jungle Cake

Today while I was at school, my mom baked the cake for me.  It's a chocolate cake.  I started with green and blue buttercream.  For the blue, I used a bag with no tip.  That makes round lines.  For the green, I used tip 1M.  That makes giant stars or the swirl on a cupcake.

I made my river first.

Then I covered it with big green stars.

Then I put more frosting on the river.

Now I'm ready to make my animals.

Painting Fondant Leaves

My fondant leaves were dry, so I was ready to paint them.  Painting them makes them brighter and shinier.

I moved the leaves to waxed paper.  My helper Sophia did too.

Then I mixed my paint.  It's made out of gel color and clear extract.

The alcohol makes the paint dry faster.  Here's my paint:

Use a paintbrush that hasn't been used for regular paint, just food stuff.

I painted the leaves.

If you have gloves, wear them!  Or else you'll get paint on you!  And it washes off but sometimes not all the way.

Making Fondant Leaves

Today I was making leaves out of fondant.  Here are the supplies I used:

I used cornstarch, a rolling pin, a silicone mat, a petal pad, a pastry brush, a ball tool, cookie cutters and veiners.  I also used Easter egg trays to dry my leaves.

I rolled out some fondant.

I used veiners to make the leaf patterns.

I cut out the leaves with cookie cutters.

I pulled off the fondant to get the leaves out.  I rolled the extra fondant back into a ball and put it back in the plastic wrap so it didn't dry out.

Here I was using the ball tool on the petal pad to make the leaves thinner on the edges.  Then it will look like a real leaf.

I put the leaves in the Easter egg trays to dry.  The Easter egg tray makes the leaves dry in different shapes.

Tomorrow I will be painting my leaves when they're dry, and baking my cake.  Stay tuned!

Meet Valerie's Cakes

My name is Valerie and I'm 7 years old.  For a couple of years now, my mom and I have worked on cakes together.  Here are some photos of my cakes.

This one was for the school contest when I was in kindergarten.   I made all of the bugs.  My mom cut the grass pieces because she didn't want me to use the pizza cutter.  It was a chocolate cake and it sure tasted good.

These were the cupcakes I took for my birthday in Kindergarten.  I made all of the flowers with little green cutters and a ball tool.  It took me about two hours to make them.  Mom baked the cupcakes, then I cut out fondant for the tops with a drinking glass.

This was my school contest cake in first grade.  My mom saved cake scraps in the freezer for a few months, and I crumbled them all up in a big bowl and mixed in frosting, to make a dough that I could form into a snake.  Then I rolled out pieces of fondant on a placemat so they would have bumps and put them all over the cake.  Last I painted snaky designs on with food color.

This year the school contest theme for my grade is Jungle or Forest.  I will be showing step-by-step how to make my cake this year.  Stay tuned!