Downright Delectable: Birthday Prep

Well, The Em's turns 3 tomorrow. I'm so excited but so behind as well! My friend Gema came over today to help me get a bit caught up. Here's what we had to do:

Ice the butterfly cookies; I already baked them off last night, but it was time to try royal icing!
Bake the checkerboard cake
Ice the checkerboard cake
Make fondant
Make butterflies out of fondant
Hang paper butterflies

Doesn't sound like a lot, but it really was.

I am really grateful to have had Gema over. I wouldn't have been able to make all that stuff on my own.

It was my first time doing a checkerboard cake, and it was extremely stressful. The recipe I used for the cake was extremely soft and fluffy, and so after letting the 3 layers cool, they almost fell apart when we put them together. Emma decided she liked the lavender color, so the checkerboard colors were lavender and white. I really can't wait until tomorrow until we cut that cake! I can't wait to see if it really came out like it was supposed to. Gema and I also made lavender buttercream to ice the cake with. It was truly delicious; just really rich and buttery.

The original plan was an ombre rose pattern on the cake, but I liked the lavender so much, we just stuck to one color, and our rose tip went out of order mid-icing, so we had to switch it out to a swirl tip and start all over. The end result was really nice as well, all that was left was to make the fondant, and then the butterflies out of fondant, and I will glue them on the cake tomorrow after they've dried a bit.

The fondant was a whole other challenge in itself. Our microwave is currently out of order, so we needed an alternative way to melt the marshmallows without burning them. We originally attempted with the oven, but then switched to stove top, which did work.

I love the fact that everything was homemade. It really made myself and Gema feel accomplished.

Here's some pictures: