This Gift Takes the Cake!

Would you believe it's party time?  I love to celebrate in spring, in fact I wish my birthday was in the spring.  Now that I think about it, I could start celebrating my half birthday - it would be perfect.  FYI, from now on my birthday is April 15th. 

 

The next party I hosted was for the birthday of a friend who actually has a birthday in May.  Why not start the celebration with the cake?  A bright colored package, tied up with bows!

 

Birthday Gift Cake

Frosted in buttercream with fondant ribbons and tag.

You can even make your own edible ribbons and you guessed it, I'm going to show you how.

Start by rolling a strip of fondant.  Cut the fondant into strips using a rolling mincer.

 

Trim the ends of the strips.

 

Roll around a wooden spoon handle.

 

Continue making ribbons until you run out of spoons.

 

Let the ribbons dry around the spoon handle until they are somewhat firm.  Don't let them get completely dry or you won't be able to shape the ribbon.

 

Slide the fondant ribbon off the handle and gently curve the ribbon, to give it a little shape.

 

Dry overnight or until they are firm.

 

After baking two 8" square cakes and frosting with buttercream, smooth the sides and top.

 

Roll and cut another strip of orange fondant.

 

Place the orange strip on the cake, wrapping it from the side to the middle of the top.

 

Add a pink strip of fondant next to the orange strip.

 

On the top of the seam of the orange and pink fondant strips, add a yellow strip.

 

All the strips should meet in the center.

 

Add a big dollop of frosting.

 

Begin, carefully adding the fondant ribbon.

 

The ribbon is fragile, so work slowly.

 

Add little dots of frosting whenever needed until the fondant ribbons are in place.

 

I decided to add a Birthday tag.

 

Using the Wilton imprint cutter, I pressed the message into orange fondant.

 

Found a cutter that would fit the message and cut.

 

Next, I rolled another piece of orange fondant and cut strips using the No. 1 strip cutter.

 

Took the end of a round decorating tip and made a hole in the tag.

 

Threaded one of the tiny strips through the hole in the tag.

 

Added the tag to the cake.

Happy Birthday!

 

More Gifts to Come!