Confection Chronicles: The Groovy Girl Cake

Department of Redundancy Department Alert!

If You are my FB friend or a someone that follows my family blog, then I have probably already shown off all my past cake creations to you,

but since this is
Confections of a Sugarholic,
and by name suppose to be about MY confections...

I feel I should start by Chronicling all my past cake crash courses just for good measure.

So Here it Goes!
Since I already featured my First Fondant Cake in my Opening Post, I am starting with my 2nd,

which was
this Groovy Girl Cake I made for my second born daughter Aubrey on her eighth Birthday.

It was really fun, but I remember having so many problems with the fondant.
This is the cake that made me abandon the much suggested method of using corn starch to prevent the fondant from sticking. I found that the cornstarch would not come off the cake once it was finished and sometimes made small clumps that could only be removed with a brush and water. When you add water to fondant it changes the color. You can see on this pic that there are spots of darker purple on the front and even small specks of cornstarch. I'm sure there is a secret to the cornstarch method but I wasn't willing to try it out enough times to get it right. Instead I just started to use shortening and I have never looked back. It works great and never messes up the finished look of your fondant!

In case you just got totally bored with that last paragraph, here's the sum of it...

DON'T USE CORNSTARCH TO PREVENT YOUR FONDANT FROM STICKING, USE CRISCO!

Other things I learned from this project:
measure out designs before they are applied. A ruler has become a cake decorating necessity for me.

Don't use as much food coloring as you thing you need. The color deepens with time especially on darker colors like the purple on this cake. I suppose the colors aren't so off that it really mattered, But... I could sit any pick it apart forever. At the time I was VERY proud of it (I still am to a lesser degree). What I am still happy about is how much Aubrey and all her Birthday Party guests loved it.

So the supply run down on this is:

3 frosted cakes
10 inch
8 inch
& 6 inch

2 batches Marshmallow Fondant (MM)

3 plastic Groovy Girl Figurines

Silver floral wire

Wilton Flower Fondant Cutter Set

Wilton Circle Fondant Cutter Set

the end of a frosting tip for the 1/4" circles