Baby Shower Cake

As I mentioned a few days ago, a friend of mine is having a baby, so of course a small group of us couldn't wait to throw a shower. I have a thing for making cakes. It's not that I'm all that good at it...I just enjoy doing it! So, my sister and I set out to make what seemed to me an impossibly difficult cake. I mean, it looked easy, but I knew working with a new medium like fondant icing wouldn't be all that easy. Especially when I went to buy some at the cake store near my house and they were out of pink. And yellow. And white. Um, excuse me, but is this really a cake decorating supply store?! The gentleman was kind enough to provide me with a suggestion for a fondant icing recipe; he said it tasted much better than what he sold anyway. I guess I'm glad he was out of the prefab stuff.

I must say I never thought the icing would ever come together. It was the stickiest goo I've ever touched and I still don't know how it turned out as well as it did. I got quite an upper body workout from the kneading and sis did a great job of encouraging me through it. "This will never work!" I lamented. "Just keep kneading, kneading, kneading....just keep kneading..." she would chant. In my mind in sounded like a sing-songy rendition of the Marlin and Dori exchanges in Finding Nemo. "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."

Anyway, behold the fruits of our labors {get it?.....get it?}! We used two small Pyrex dishes for the, um, chest, and a larger round dish for the belly. A small round ball of fondant can serve as the belly button. We placed these atop a 9X13 cake. You can read all about the general steps we followed, which are listed here.

So, the next time you are in the mood for cake and want to burn the calories before you eat it, skip the gym and make a cake with fondant icing!