Gift Box Cake

After the success of my first fondant cake served in a party, I was excited to make some more. So, when my friend asked me to make the cake for her daughter's birthday coming up a week later...I was thrilled! And, after all, her daughter is my god daughter, too.

The cake was planned to be served to just a small get-together and not a real party. Since, I didn't have a theme to work around on, I decided to just use this opportunity to practice!


TOOLS I USED

• 9 x 13 in. cake pan from my Bakeware Set
• Funny Flower Cut-outs
• Round Tip: 5 
• Rolling pin
• Smooth working surface or Rolling Mat
• Easy-Glide Fondant Smoother
• Wilton Cutter Embosser
• Alphabet/Numerals Icing Decorations
• 14 in. cake circle
• Aluminum Foil
• Knife
• Ruler
• Pizza cutter 

INGREDIENTS

• Beatty's Chocolate Cake
• Marshmallow Fondant 
• White Rolled Fondant 24 oz. Pkg.
• Rolled Fondant Primary Colors Multi-Pack
• Yellow Icing Color
• Red Icing Color

TECHNIQUE USED

• Fondant for Beginners: How to Make a Fondant Bow 

HOW I DID IT

• 2 days in advance: Made Yellow Marshmallow Fondant (MMF). I only had enough ingredients to make one batch of color.

Used Yellow MMF to make the fondant bow. To decorate my bow,  I used my embosser to mark "stitches" along the edge of the ribbon.

How to cover a round cake circle.

Cake Board. Prepared my cake board by tracing a regular size white paper on the 14 in. cake circle and cutting the board to that size. Placed the board on a foil and cut around the edge about 3-4 inches larger. And wrapped the board with foil secured by tape.

• Morning of party. Baked and cooled the 9 x 13 in cake. I cut it in the middle to make two (2) cake layers by putting one on top of the other. And then filled and crumb-coated the cake.

Cake cover. Kneaded the White ready-to-use fondant and colored it pink by using the Red icing color. Rolled it out and covered the cake.

Yellow Ribbon. Rolled out the Yellow MMF and used the ruler and pizza cutter to cut ribbons to make the cross on the cake. I also used the embosser to mark "stitches" along the edge of the ribbon, basically, to match the bow. Brushed a little bit of water at the back of the ribbons to attach to the cake. Also, placed the fondant bow I made the day before right on the center of the cake.

Pink Flowers. Rolled out Pink fondant and used the medium Fancy Flower cut out to make flowers that I placed all around the cake. Also rolled out a little bit of the Red ready-to-use fondant and used the tip of the decorating tip #5 to cut out the red dots to go on the center of the flowers.

Gift Tag. Used the Alphabet Icing decoration to spell out the celebrant's name and brushed a little bit of water on it to put on the remaining rolled out Pink fondant. I just cut a gift-tag shape around the letters with measuring and embossed "stitches" around the edge. Then rolled out Red ready-to-use fondant where I placed the pink gift-tag and then cut an outline with a little bit of an allowance around it (approximately 1/4 in.). I used Tip #5 to make a hole for the tag then rollled Red fondant into a log and used it to hold the tag around the fondant bow.

Border. Rolled Yellow MMF to two (2) 10 in. long rope and placed around the cake.

You may be interested in reading the Fondant for Beginners series:

• Tools to start decorating with Fondant
• How to make home-made Marshmallow Fondant
  
• Preparing your cake to be covered
• How to cover cake with Fondant
• How to make a Fondant Bow