Elmo Extravaganza!

For my old college roommate's daughter's 1st Birthday, i made her an elmo cake! The first thing i worked on is the elmo cake topper. I watched a video on youtube that i cant remember who put it up about how to make elmo (or bear shaped creatures) out of fondant.

Step one: Coloring him to the shade of elmo, which is a deeper red.
Step two: Molding his body, arms, head, and legs.
Step three: Piecing him together so he doesnt look deformed. The best thing to use to hold his head to his body since the head is heavier than the arms and legs is to use skewers. For his arms and legs toothpicks work well.
Step four: Making him look furry. The video i watched suggested using cake scissors but thats didnt work well for the look i wanted so i tried several piping tips until i found that a small star tip works best to give him a furry look.

Step five: Adding his eyes. I just took tiny amounts of fondant and dyed them to the colors i needed and shaped them till they looked like him.

How cute is he! i loved how he looked like a baby considering shes one 1!

Now i should have taken more pictures but my hands get so gooey that i often forget. The next things i worked on was trim decorations which were made of little rolled balls. I stuck with the elmo theme and kept them green, red, yellow, and blue. My other main decoration were star cut outs. Now all these were simple to make. Just section fondant and color with wilton food coloring paste till you like the colors. For the stars i used a star cookie cutter. I also used wiltons alphabet cookie cutters to cut out "Happy Birthday".

All the decorations can be attacked with a little bit of piped butterceam. Good thing i took extra because i got the E and I mixed up in her name : / oops

The hardest part about a cake this big (3 tiers, 2 layers to each) is that you have to stack them properly other wise you'll get bulging like you notice on my yellow layer (which wasnt to bad) or it could collapse, which ill discuss for my easter cake later. For stacking each later you have to put dowel supports in each cake and each layer separate by a cake cardboard round. With good spacing and strong wood, it will stay standing. I also hammered one all the way threw all layers to add extra stability.

Heres the final product.

As an added bonus i made a "smash cake" for her to play with. A smash cake is a little cake for the child to get messy with. I used the giant cupcake scilacone cupcake mold and covered it with butter cream and matching decorations.

Isnt she adorable!