Cupcake Dreams: "DIrty Thirty" Birthday Celebrations

So, my sister turned 30 this year. As we planned her birthday celebration for this BIG birthday I wanted to do something special for her. I somehow convinced myself that I could in fact make her a "fabulous" birthday cake. It was a task I offered at my own free will but a challenge I was excited to face.

When I went to the store I immediately became overwhelmed with all of the different tools and gadgets for cake making. Sure, I've made a simple birthday cake before...who hasn't. Bake the cake in the cake pans, slather it with their favorite frosting, and then slap a "happy birthday" on top. But I didn't want this to be just an ordinary birthday cake. I wanted it to be fun and creative. The more I thought of ideas, the more the baking aisle became a happy place to visit.

I will admit, I did a lot of research in order to figure out what all these tools were used for, but once I learned what they were I was ready to get started. I immediately called my mom while standing in the aisle to tell her how excited I was and how many things I had to choose from. When I got to the register I was no longer impressed. I had no idea how much making a cake would cost. I have a new respect for those prices we all whine about at bakeries. BUT, this was for my sister...so, suck it up and hope it turns out somewhat decent.

The easy part was baking the cake. Sure, I can do that. I've baked a lot of cakes. The next step wasn't so easy. For the first time I decided to experiment with fondant...AND boy was it an experiment. I spent hours rolling out a block of hard "icing", but got a nice little arm muscle work out in the process. Adam would come in from working in the garage to find me each time hunched over the counter still rolling away. He liked to comment that this cake was going to take me forever...and from the looks of how the first fondant experience went, it did feel like it would be forever.

I FINALLY got the white rolled out and layed over the cake. Next would be mixing black coloring into the white in order to cut out "zebra stripes". In my head it seemed like a really fun idea. When it took me another couple of hours to ge the black just right and then cutting the stripes I was beginning to re-think the whole idea.

This is the end result of a whole day's work...and just the beginning

Another day = filling in the gaps with more stripes

In my mind a "BIG" celebration needs to have a "BIG" cake. It can't just be one simple layer. It needs some color...some fun. Day #3 of cake decorating was mixing the white with pink coloring. This took forever and another trip to the store for some more fondant. I messed up the rest of my white and got some funky florescent red color. It was just not working, but I evenutally got the pink I was looking for. This time I think I had mastered the rolling of fondant and this one went a little faster and smoother.

Applying the pink to the top layer...