Pretty in Pink Fondant – A Tale of Two Tiers

Last week I made a fondant covered cake for the second time in my life. It was a friend’s daughter’s Christening, and I am the little girl’s godmother so offered to make a cake. Here’s how it turned out …

I’ve been baking for over a year now and generally make sponge cupcakes, which have always gone down very well with friends and family (follow me on instagram to see photos!). I asked the parents what kind of cake they would like and the father mentioned he loved chocolate biscuit cake. Now I’ve NEVER made chocolate biscuit cake before, but my sister’s boyfriend makes it occasionally (his mom’s recipe) and he gave the recipe to me and I thought I’d give it a whirl. NOTE TO SELF chocolate biscuit cake is VERY, VERY hard to cover in fondant, especially if you are only using fondant to cover a cake for the SECOND time!

I had a whole plan in my head. When my friend told me she was pregnant I had made lemon cupcakes, with little yellow fondant butterflies on top, which her and her family had loved (her mom even asked for the recipe!). So I decided I would make a two tier cake, with an 8″ lemon sponge cake on the bottom, and a 6″ chocolate biscuit cake on top, decorated with butterflies as well … so that it would be a nod back to the ‘pregnancy cupcakes’ … see, I had a PLAN! I was feeling very pleased with myself and my little plan … right up until when I was covered in icing sugar 2 hours before the Christening started with a completely naked cake! 2nd NOTE TO SELF NEVER, EVER leave any cake preparations to the day of an event!

So I eventually got both the cakes covered in fondant, but the top of the biscuit cake was far from smooth (why didn’t I make that as the bottom layer so that the sponge cake could cover the bumps, you ask? GOOD QUESTION!). However, my wonderful husband saved the day by suggesting that I sprinkle icing sugar over the cake which would disguise a lot of the bumps … THE MAN IS A GENIUS!

So, drama aside, the cake turned out ok. It was NOT the cake I had planned in my head. But the parents were thrilled, and the Christening guests demolished the cake, so all was well that ends well.

I’ll be sharing my recipe for the cake layers in future posts so don’t forget to check back!

Also, have you had any baking related meltdowns? Please share so I can prove to my husband that I’m not the only crazy person who has meltdowns while covered in icing sugar 😉