It has been so much fun making this cake.
Yes , I admit.  It took many hours to make all the figurines on this cake. 
I think this is the most number of figurines I've put on a single cake.
Just like all the cakes I've made, I love putting details.

A baby shower cake for a mom-to-be who is a Grade 2 Teacher with 21 students and 
who also loves anything monkey theme. 
First thing that came to mind was to make the 21 Little monkeys. 
Of course, I needed to include the little ones. 
My daughter, Melissa, gave a lot of suggestions on the different expressions on the monkey's faces.

So the assembly line started.
Since I can only work on a project at night (as I have a regular work during the day), 
I figure I should create at least 3 monkeys a night. 
With only two weeks to work on the details of the cake.
I also made a stork with the use of aluminum wire for the structure and fondant.

I sculpted the baby using plain fondant  but really should have used modelling chocolate.
It came out great at least.
I used Rose petal dust to give the baby some color.
I also made a blanket. 
Roll out the white paste (fondant)  using a rolling pin to about 1/8" thickness. 
Using a pizza cutter and the ruler as a guide, cut a rectangular shape.
Use vodka and food color gel, green, golden yellow and moss green to paint the stripe design.
Let it dry before putting the baby figure.

This is the original design that I made but completely changed my mind during the assembly.

The sizes of the cakes are 8 x 6 in (bottom) and 6 x 6 in (top tier),

Filled with SMBC and frosted with chocolate ganache.
I covered the two cakes  with white colored fondant.

I use Satin Ice Fondant and added a little bit of glucose to add more stretch to the fondant.
I'm really not enjoying Satin Ice Fondant anymore. 
Develops this elephant skin and dries up really fast when I'm covering the cake.
I always have to work overly fast to avoid this.
I have yet to master the art of covering a cake with fondant.

Using vodka and a hint of Royal Blue color gel, I painted both cakes using a large paint brush.
This is to create the sky effect. It was really nice to use this technique instead of coloring the fondant blue.
The unevenness of how I applied the paint created a great effect. 

Then I added the monkeys, creating a little story here and there, as shown in the photos.

Here's the finish cake. 
If you want to see more close-up photos of this cake, please like my Facebook page, click here
What do you think? 
I would love to hear from you!
If you have any question on this cake, please don't hesitate to send me an email.

And here's a BIG SURPRISE!
This cake got the Editor's Choice and Daily Top 3 at CakesDecor site, click here.
This really made by day! 

I had so much fun making this cake.
I started making Thomas, Percy and James Train using RKT (Rice Krispy Treats). 
I used the store bought individually wrapped  RKT as I find it easier and mess free

After the trains were built, I started on the trees. 
I took pictures on how I built the tree but I lost my phone that week which I used 
to take the photos...arrgggh!

Anyway, for the trees, I used this picture as my inspiration.

HOW TO MAKE THIS TREE

Print the image to the size you'd like your tree to be.
Cut the green part and use that as your template or you can do free hand cutting if you wish.
I want my trees to have same look so I use a template.
For the trunk, get a piece of brown fondant and roll to a sausage shape  
Use a small pair of scissors to create the branches. It doesn't have to be the same as the picture.

Bulrush plants

Use a copper colored fondant with tylose powder and roll into a sausage shape. 
Use a 18g wire to make the stem, dip one end with edible glue 
and insert in the sausage shaped Bulrush fondant. 

For the rocks, I used white and gray or brown and black marble effect.

The Bridge is also made of RKT and covered in fondant. 

To see more photos of this cake, please click here

Got this wonderful message from the client: 

"Bobie you did an outstanding job on the cake!! I am thrilled!!! Thank you so much:) You deserved even more than that for the cake, your work is amazing! I will recommend you to as many people as possible:) The cake was really tasty too, the raspberry flavor added in was great, the ganache was yummy and so was the cake and the buttercream. Having several layers in the cake really made it great. I feel like I could ramble on forever about how great the cake was!! I hope you keep making cakes for a long time because I will always come to you for a cake;) Thanks again!!"

Here's the final result

Ava's favorite food is Taco, so she's having a Taco Themed Birthday party today. Why not have a Taco Cake to complete the event. This is a fun cake to make.

So how did I do it?

Start preparing the “Taco Shells” a day or days ahead the cake is needed. (Since I can only work on cakes at night due to my regular work – I prepared the “Taco Shells” 3 days ahead).

TACO SHELLS – What to use to make the shells? I’ve seen two versions – one using a Cookie Dough and another using melted choco-melts. They are great but not what I had in mind. I’d like it to look like a real hard taco shells. I also wanted to prepare the shells ahead of time.

So I decided to use fondant with a little bit of tylose powder. I rolled the fondant with tylose into thin sheets. Not too thin about 1/4” or 0.5 mm thick. Using a 6” round cake pan as your guide cut out 12 discs out of sugarpaste.

In order to get the look of a real taco shells, I colored the white sugar with brown color gel and sprinkled a little on each disc. Press the sprinkled sugar on the fondant to stick.

You are probably thinking, why did I not use brown sugar instead? I find the brown sugar not the right color of what I’m looking for. I also thought of using sanding sugar but I find it is not as fine as granulated sugar and black is too dark.

How to make the disc the shape of a real taco shell? I thought, why not use a real hard taco shell to use as a guide to get the right shape of a taco shell. I placed a real taco shell in the middle of the disc and fold the two sides up. Leave the real taco shell inside while the fondant disc “taco shell” dries. Just like the photo below.

CAKE

I baked a 9 X 13 inch chocolate cake 2 days before the cake is needed. I also prepared a bowl of chocolate ganache enough to cover 12 mini cakes.

ASSEMBLY DAY

I assembled the “Tacos” the night before the cake delivery. I cut twelve mini cakes in the shape of half of the “Taco Shell”, a little smaller that the shell actually. Frost each cake with chocolate ganache. and put the min-cakes in the fridge for awhile until the frosting hardens a bit.

In the meantime, prepare the “GROUND MEAT” part of the Taco:

Make Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats using 2 cups of Rice Crispy Cereal, 1/2 cup marshmallows and chocolate ganache. Combine the melted marshmallows, Rice Crispy cereal and the ganache. Just eyeball the amount of chocolate ganache until you get the color of a “ground meat”.

Prepare the ”TOMATOES, GREEN PEPPER, SOUR CREME, CHEESE”. For the TOMATOES, cut the Twizzlers Tidbits. Use Fruit Loop for the green pepper and to mimic the sour cream use Buttercream icing .

Now this is fun. For the “GRATED CHEESE”: Color your fondant (with tylose) golden yellow or GOLD food gel, let it sit for a little to harden a bit. Get your cheese grater (use the part as shown in the pic) and grate the fondant.

Now, it’s time to make the “Taco”

• Get the mini-cakes out of the fridge.
• Place each mini-cake in the prepared “Taco Shells”. Be extra careful in putting the cake so as not to break the “Taco Shell”.
• Put the Chocolate RKT on both ends of the cake.
• Pipe buttercream icing on top to mimic the sour cream.
• Put the “TOMATOES, GREEN PEPPER and CHEESE”

TA-DA! You have a ”TACO CAKE”—Isn’t it cool?

Here's how it looks inside!