Kevin's Birthday Cake

Today is Kevin's birthday (yes, his birthday is on the 31st and my Dad's is on the 30th). This year, I decided to try something a little different. Instead of going out to buy him a birthday cake, I will make one myself! Now, this can be a little bit tricky, since I have never baked a birthday cake, let alone work with fondant before. However, with some research on the Internet about working with fondant, a trip to Michaels to pick up all the stuff and inspiration from one of my favorite shows, Cake Boss, I started working on the cake 2 days ago.

My cousin (who is a pretty good in baking and stuff) told me that I should make the decorative pieces earlier, to give it enough time to harden. So, I made the ribbon, alphabets and stars two days before. I was a little afraid of working with fondant, but I found it to be pretty fun actually. Feels like playing with Play Doh! :P

The following night, I started to bake the cakes. I just baked some yellow cakes, nothing fancy at all. It turned out pretty good, nice and moist. So phew, that part turned out alright.

After letting it cool for a bit, I then chilled the cakes in the refrigerator overnight.

The following day, I took out the cakes and tried to shape and trim them. I have never done this before but I tried my best to get them as even as possible. It was a lame attempt, in my opinion, but oh well, that's the best I could do :P

Next was frosting the cake. Kevin wanted strawberry frosting, so strawberry frosting he got! No, I didn't make it from scratch. I just bought a tub of ready made whipped strawberry frosting and slapped it on. That was easy. I then proceeded to frost the outside of the cake and then started to work on rolling out of the fondant (to cover the cake). I find this to be the most difficult part. It's not really that easy to roll out the fondant and then to cover the cake with it. At that point, I was already preparing myself to run out to the local bakery to get a backup cake if this doesn't work out :P

Now the decorating. If you noticed, there is no photo in between the initial frosting and the decorating part. That's cause I was trying to get it right with the fondant and stuff, I totally forgot to take pictures! Powdered sugar was flying everywhere...boy, it was chaotic! I love the decorating part the best though, it's fun.

Here it is, the final product!! I guess it isn't the best and might look a little 'amateurish', but I'm just glad it worked out and I didn't have to run out to buy a last minute ready made cake...hahaha! As long as the birthday boy likes it, I'm happy!

Kevin cut his cake at around midnight last night. We will go out later tonight for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Havn't really decided where to yet though. I will blog about that later on. Now, anybody wants a slice of cake? :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KEVIN!!!