Tommy's 1st Birthday Cake

This post shows how I made Tommy's 1st birthday cake.



First, I'd like to credit this video for helping me with planning and shaping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctpT2tUEyo

So this is my plan.

I made 2 cakes in 7x13 pans. This is the first step of cutting.

I used a cereal box to cut my template for the next piece. After this picture I actually wound up making it a little bit smaller.

2nd layer cut out and set up.

Here, I've used the part I cut away from the back of the 1st layer as a tail. I've used scraps and the rest of the 2nd cake to make a 3rd layer, and 2 more layers make up the head.

This is the cake! The ears wound up crumbling and I made ears out of icing later. After this point I put on a layer of white (should have used orange, though...) crumb layer icing. I was able to smooth everything out and make the layers not so step-y. I put it in the fridge for a few hours to harden it up.

I used a star tip 22 and just went all over. Then I used a kiddie paint brush and dabbed black on to make the spots. It's supposed to be Garfield. It's not a great likeness at all, but not bad for my first time making a cake like this. Ears are made by icing that had been in the fridge all night and was hard enough for me to shape. Eyes are a chocolate chip cut in half.