cake | Cookie Carrie

Tag Archives: cake

August 7, 2018 · 8:00 am

Unicorn Smash Cake

I made this cake for my tiny babe’s Unicorn First Birthday Party.

Unicorn cakes are “all the rage” right now. You can find them on Instagram and Pinterest and just about anywhere. I really wanted to make one for the party but I knew I needed to be reasonable with my skill level.

Cakes are not exactly my thing. They stress me out and there’s only 1 so if you mess it up there’s no extra to fall back on. Smash cakes on the other hand are smaller and don’t need to be perfect because the baby is just going to mess it up anyway!

I did a funfetti cake and frosted the outside in white with a little bit of pink streaks. (Which may or may not have been an accident.)

I wrapped the colors separately and added them all to the piping bag together to create this colored look.

I used a big star tip and piped swirls for the unicorn’s mane, then filled in the holes with stars.

Once I felt like the mane had a good flow, I sprinkled it with iridescent sparkles. It’s hard to capture in pictures but it was so pretty!

I made the ears and horn from cookies. I baked the horn on a stick so that I could easily put it on and take it off of the cake when it was time. I outlined and filled the cookies in white, plus a little pink for the ears. The horn, once dry, I painted in silver luster dust. I really like this one because you don’t have to mix it, it’s already ready to go.

I piped eyes and eyelashes on the unicorn and once they were dry I painted them in silver luster dust.

Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I think she liked it!

If you want to see more of my smash cakes, check out these links!

Pumpkin Smash Cake

Cookie Monster Smash Cake

Giant Cupcake Smash Cake

2016 Monthly Challenge: Fondant

It’s that time again!

I made a quasi-resolution to challenge myself every month to try a new technique or recipe that I’ve been scared to do before.

In January I made funnel cakes. On January 31st. In February I made granola bars. On February 29th. I’m happy to report that my March challenge was completed on March 30, with one day to spare! Small improvements people.

For March I made fondant.

In case you don’t know, fondant a paste used to cover cakes to give them that smooth perfect look. It’s also used as decorations, cupcake toppers, and sometimes on cookies. It’s edible, but typically not very tasty.

Homemade fondant is made out of marshmallows. Way tastier than store bought stuff!

I have never even worked with fondant before, so everything about this was new to me. I watched a couple how-to videos before getting started. This video by Lisa of The Bearfoot Baker helped me prepare my cake. I also used Lisa’s fondant recipe. I watched this YouTube video to get the technique down for covering my cake.

Fondant

Ingredients:

1 lb mini marshmallows

2 tbsp water

2 lb powdered sugar

**Lisa’s recipe called for vegetable shortening. I had some but it was bad (oops) so I just did without. It still worked fine, but it probably would have been a little easier.

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, melt marshmallows and water, stopping to stir every 35 seconds. (It took me 3 rounds of 35 seconds.)

2. Dump most of the powdered sugar on a mat for kneading, creating a well.

3. Pour the melty mallows into the powdered sugar well. My well was not big enough and it spilled over and stuck to my mat. Make a big well.

4. I stirred with a spatula at first because the mallows were HOT. After a minute or so I was able to use my hands. No vegetable shortening means a big sticky mess. Knead sugar into marshmallows.

…after a bit it finally started to come together. Still sticky gross hands.

5. Keep kneading until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated and there are no little powdered sugar balls.

This is how it looked once all of the powdered sugar was incorporated. My hands were still messy but not too bad! 6. Roll out the fondant as smooth and flat as possible, turning 1/4 turn after every couple rolls (to keep it from sticking). The diameter needs to be wide enough to cover your cake. H+W+H. I had a 6″ cake that was 3″ tall so I needed it at least 12″ wide. This recipe make probably 2x as much fondant as I needed.

7. Lift the fondant up and over the top of your cake. I had to get my husband’s help with this part.

**Shhh no peeking at the cake. That will come later!**

8. Immediately smooth out the top to make sure there are no air bubbles…
…then use your hands to start molding the fondant down the sides of the cake, starting at the top. 9. Then use the smoother to smooth out the sides as much as possible all the way down.

10. Use a knife to cut as close to the cake as you can around the bottom, and remove the excess. (Store airtight. I wrapped in cling wrap then put in a ziploc bag.)

11. Voila! Not as hard as I thought it would be! It’s DEFINITELY not perfect, but I am proud of it!
I used a stencil and a can of Wilton Color Spray to decorate the top.