Cake #19: Ducks in a Barrel

Although I first saw this cake used for a baby shower, I thought it was just too cute not to try myself! I simply had to start by frosting an 8" round cake in light blue buttercream. Then, I added 1.25" strips of brown fondant to the sides to create the barrel; if I were to recreate this cake, I would use much thinner strips to create the illusion of a taller barrel. To complete the cake, I merely added two rubber ducks (purchased at Walmart for 50¢) and small blue bubbles crafted from fondant.

This cake was extremely simple and quite the hit at work! Plus, the evenly-sized strips of brown fondant along the sides made cutting the cake a breeze!

Cake #18: Basket o' Berries

Since it's been so extremely brutal at work the past few weeks, I wanted to take a special summer pick-me-up cake for a little relief; with Independence Day this Friday, I also decided my cake need to have a patriotic feel.

I originally saw this cake on Cakecentral a few months ago and knew I had to try it. I baked two 8" white cakes to make a 4-layer cake with strawberry-favored buttercream. Since I've used the basket weave technique on several different cakes, I decided to spice it up ever so slightly by using a different tip, which gave me the smooth weave. Unfortunately, I failed to tint my base layer of buttercream so there are several places where the white buttercream underneath glares out!

After completing the weave, I simply added a shell border around the top and then some fresh summer berries. I had originally hoped to use the rope border around both the top and bottom, but the amount of buttercream required to cover this cake was amazing; after competing the basket weave, I barely had enough left for the shells around the top!