Moo Cake

The first one was an easy choice: it had to be a number “1” cake. The decorations had to be appropriate for a 1 year old, so the themes had to be animal based. I have always loved cows, so I thought I’d give that a try. So I started by designing the cake. A number “1” white cake with black patches, placed on a green grassy looking base and with 2 cows on the top (for my 2 daughters).

The first thing I made were the 2 cows for the top of the cake as they had to dry and harden before I could use them. I managed to find a great site called Pastry wiz with step by step instructions on how to make fondant cows, so I just followed that. I was a bit nervous about this step, so I first tried it out with play dough!

After colouring the fondant I made the fondant cows and kept them aside to harden for a few days.

The next day I covered the cake board with green fondant and pressed an impression mat on it to make it look like grass. I also made the fondant flowers and let them all dry.

2 days before the party I made the cake, I levelled it and crumb iced it with vanilla icing. I then put it in the fridge to harden.

Also, to be able to move the cake on the fondant covered base after icing it, without damaging the cake, I created another thin board from a cardboard wine case cut out as a “1”. I covered this shape with the aluminium coated cardboard lid of a disposable baking pan .

The day before the party, the cake was ready to be decorated. I rolled out a sheet of white fondant and covered the cake with it. Then, using the sugar craft gun, I created a long fondant border to put around the cake to make it look neater.

At this point I placed the cake on the green fondant covered board. Then I rolled the black fondant, cut out black “cow patches” and stuck them to the cake with a little water. I also made some fondant grass using a garlic press to cover joins in the border around the cake.

At the end I attached the flowers to the base with a little water.

Just before taking the cake out to the guests, I put the little cows and the candle on the top. I did not do that before as the cows were a bit heavy and I didn’t want them to damage the cake after all the hard work!!! Here is how it looked at the end… all ready!