Dylan is Three!

My baby turned three last week but we didn't celebrate until Sunday. (I was still making his cake "preps" and it wasn't done.) Yes, it is now a joke that you're not allowed to have a brithday until the cake is ready, in my house.

Bonnie and Randy came over and this year we were surprised by Uncle Coley as he was passing through on his way to Germany. I had made a yummy lasagna dinner because that's exactly what Dylan.....didn't want. (He ended up eating a bowl of cereal. I didn't care. It WAS his birthday after all.) 

Dylan got a "couple of trucks/cars" (I use that term loosely)! A scooter, that his siblings have put to use more than he has. And a couple shirts/sweaters.

As for his cake...I wanted to do a jungle theme with lots of different animals but the few that I did make took WAY too long so I just kept it at that. It still turned out, so I'm not complaining. AND because it did take so long, I did not attatch them to the cake because they'll look great on a shelf somewhere. *and yes, they are made out of fondant too.

I guess the zebra is the only one I took pics of in the process. Oh well. The others were roughly built the same way. Just different colors. And shapes. And well, Ok, they weren't the same. But you know what I mean.

I estimated the zebra has over 120 tiny little stripes on. TOOK. F.O.R.E.V.E.R!!!!! But totally worth it! I wish this little fat guy was real.

The lion, was the easiest. For the mane, all I used was a mini 5 petal flower cutter. Holed out the middle and sliced it between two petals. Stretching it out to make a scalloped strip. Then glued it on. *When I say "glue", it's a mixture of pieces of gum paste (similar to fondant, just more stretchy) and water. Swirl around till disolved. Use a paint brush to apply. Little bit goes A LONG way. It's SUPER sticky and perfect for attaching "props" to your cakes and arms to fat little bodies, like this.

Butt shot! ahahahaha Actually It's the tails. Turned out cute as well.

To lay fondant over rice crispies, You need a generous amount of frosting to help hide the bumpyness of the crispies. And something for the fondant to stick to.

For the Griaff "spots", I rolled out the brown fondant and then took my knife and cut a squiggly line down and then across to make the misshaped squares. The zebra stripes.... alternating squiggly triangles. And pointy strips. All different thicknesses. Just make sure they don't touch. There is a little bit of white between each black piece.

The making of my palm tree. I wrapped wire with fondant and cut and shaped and dried leaves. Used royal icing to stick together.I did have to hold it for a minute till I was sure it wouldn't drop. I would apply a leaf, go work on something else, come back, stick another leaf on, go back to something else....and so on. I didn't want the weight of all the leaves to make it fall. So patience is neccessary!!!

I wanted to incorporate water in some way, but didn't have the creativity (my mind was pretty fried at this point after the chaotic week I just had). So I just rolled little blue balls and randomly placed them around the middle. I like the accent color it adds to the cake.

Removal of the animals for the demolition of the cake. I have a picture of the lights out and the candles lit, and the yellow cirlcles with his name, were glowing with the flames behind it. Cool effect that I didn't plan.

Fist bumps and elbow bumps sealing the deal wish.

Our cake hater was even FINALLY able to have some because of the rice crispies. Now I know what to make for Randy's birthday! As for the others, they had to have a little of both!

Happy Birthday to my Baby!