Avery's 2nd Birthday!

My daughter Avery absolutely loves the Backyardigans, so for her 2nd birthday party, I had planned to make a Backyardigans themed, tiered cake.

I tend to have pretty grandiose ideas that usually flutter due to my lack of natural creativity. Most of the cakes I have decorated are borrowed ideas that I've tweaked to make my own, but this cake, I created in my head, where my creative juices tend to run pretty dry. Overall, I like the intent of the design and for the most part, it was true to form.

Here's what I'd planned to do.

DH jumped in to help put together this cake. He did everything from level cakes, fill and ice w/ buttercream, as well as roll out and cover a cake with fondant. He's a great assistant and the consummate perfectionist. Oh, and he loves him some cake and buttercream! Thanks baby!

Here he is smoothing out the fondant on the half-ball cake.

Most of the cakes were covered in one night, but the pink, polka-dotted cake was done the night before. And by morning, it was a mess. I used a different kind of marshmellow in the making of the fondant used on this cake. For whatever reason, it wouldn't firm up, no matter how much powdered sugar I continued to add. Needless to say, the cake looked "sick". It was a blistering, bubbly, bulging, rippled mess. I didn't have time to bake and cover another cake, so I had to live with it. Which absolutely killed me.

Here's the cake in assembly with the half-ball cake.

And here is the final product.

Pablo got a little fatter. In my haste, I made my figurines without giving them the proper amount of time to dry. So while rolled thin, the fondant settled for a more full-figured Pablo. Notice the pink ugliness?

Uniqua didn't turn out that badly.

Tasha was by far the best.


I thought Tyrone turned out okay, though his head may have been a little long.

Overall, this was a fun cake to make. I truly enjoy making cakes, the cake was a hit and my daughter could tell who was who. However, more time should have been given to the complete implementation of the idea. I learned a few things making this cake.