This is really where it all got started...

This is a topsy turvy cake or also known as a Mad Hatter cake because of its unusual shape. This is definitely one of my favorites; not only because I mastered this technique on my first try but because it was created for a baby shower to welcome my niece!

My nieces bedding was ladybugs and dragonflys so it was only appropriate to do a cake to match her bedroom theme.

This cake was "gi-normous"! It was two tiers of chocolate cake and one tier of white cake. Each layer was covered in homemade buttercream frosting and covered in light pink fondant. The actual technique of creating this topsy turvy style was super difficult and time consuming. Total hours put into this cake was 19 hours, baking time included. Each layer was stacked with graduated sizes of cake, stuck together with buttercream, then the sides were shaved down to get "the look". The top layer was a crazy technique of slicing the top layer on the diagonal, turning the top piece around to give it a tilt, then cutting out a center circle the same circumference as the layer above and frosting it all smooth to cover it with fondant. Fondant for those of you who are not familiar is a play-dough like material that you kneed color into (until your arms go numb) and then roll it out until its large enough to cover the surface (a great ab workout) and carefully smooth it down until it becomes one with the cake. It gives the cake a great sheen that traditional frosting cannot.

The leaves, ladybugs and flowers were all created out of gumpaste, another interesting material I like to use. Again it requires kneeding (you would think I would have fabulous arms doing all this kneeding and rolling) and you can cut shapes out and let them dry a week or so or roll up 1 inch balls and form into ladybugs. The eyes and black dots are just itty-bitty balls flattened and adhered with water to the bugs body. The green vines are just piped on with frosting and the pink balls are used to cover the unfinished edges between each tier.

I do believe this cake got a few "oohs and ahhs" which made it all worth while not to mention I heard it was pretty tasty as well.