vaulting

Her birthday is two days before T's, so now Sandra and I have to factor in when the parties will be when planning! This year, we decided to go after, especially because of Easter being the weekend right after their birthdays.

P decided on a gymnastics theme, and we prayed the weather would cooperate so we could do some games outside.

Alas...

P and I browsed Pinterest for cake ideas, and she found a few she really liked, but kept coming back to what she eventually settled on. It's completely fondant (sheesh), so I immediately began to plan how to make smooth buttercream frosting and substitute toys on top of the cake. She wanted the same colors, too.

First came the base, which I did in an 9" pan to make sure it would be wide enough. This got covered in white and edged with pink.

Next was the main part of the cake, which I stacked with chocolate frosting in between layers. I filled all three of my 6" pans, but ended up only using two sections of that size cake. This got covered in teal frosting.

Last was adding decorations. I bought gumpaste, hoping this would work to make the ribbon. M had a medal I could borrow to attach to the ribbon, which was a bit of a relief I wouldn't have to make one.

Unfortunately, the frosting was rather soft, so trying to wrap the ribbon around was a bit frustrating. My stack was also a bit short for getting this all to fit, so I couldn't figure out how to get everything to lay right. Then T fell off the bench in the dining room and that was that for the ribbon.

Fortunately, I had my present for P as part of my decoration, and once we added candles, the cake looked complete.

Notice all that color coordination?

Normally, this is where I show you a picture of the cut cake. Alas, we devoured the whole thing this time:

I did manage to snap a pic of a slice, though.