Alexis's 1st Birthday

I had volunteered to bake a cake for my dear niece for her 1st birthday. I had in mind what to do but only started with the figurine, rainbow and little flowers 5 days in advance. Little did I know that the rains would come... and stayed.... for days. It kept raining for the many days after the figurine and rainbow were completed and I could only pray that the figurine would dry. As for the cake itself, I baked it the day before the celebration and assembled the cake the next morning. I was happy when the figurine, flowers and rainbow felt dry to touch.

While assembling the cake, I decided the prop the rainbow higher so that Alexis's name would be more visible on the rainbow, so I added some height to it, by placing a huge blob of fondant as the base. To cover the base up, I added small balls of fondant to represent the clouds. I did all the finishing touches to it and happily placed the cake into a box. The weather that morning was very warm. Once I turned the air-con off and opened the doors and windows, I felt a gush of warm and humid air rush in. Still I continued with my cleaning up and left the cake alone.

Till it was time to leave the house, I peeped into the box and saw a DISASTER! The rainbow had collapsed and was leaning onto the cow. When I tried to adjust the rainbow to the original position, the left ear of the cow was stuck onto the rainbow. Still this was something that I would be able to save quite easily, so I left it as such.... until I peeped into the box 30 minutes later, while waiting for my parents to appear, I saw the fondant base had cracked! Turned out that the rainbow base and the "clouds" were too heavy for the base, it started to slide off and dragged the fondant base along! Furthermore, the fondant started melting.... making the cake looked a gooey mess instead! OMG OMG OMG... I could only asked DH to turn back to my place, where I rushed to pack fondant, the alphabet cutter, rolling pin and a pack of cornstarch to bring along to the holiday chalet, where the celebrations will be held...

Seemed like it was truly not my day, as it started to pour again on the way there... and it was still raining cats and dogs when we finally reached the destination. I could only turn the aircon at it's fullest and also the fan once I stepped in. I started dismantling the cake decor and at the same time, my brain was in overdrive, trying to salvage the situation. I was even contemplating to buy a cake at the nearby bakery if all I could do did not work.

After some consideration, I decided to redo the top of the cake, as the fondant surface was beyond repair. So I took out my remaining fondant and started rolling it out. Finally I re-assembled the decor and got approving grunts from the rest of the family.

I guess I did manage to pull it off *PHEW*.... here's some of the pics of the "before" and "after" cakes.

These are the pics of the "before" cake..... with the rainbow, figurines and flowers...

Close up of the figurine and all....Close up of the clouds which "destroyed" the cake eventually...The sides of the cake.... i placed wooden fences, flowers and butterflies all around...These are the pics of the "after" cake...

If you had the patience to read till the end of this post... Thank you! LOLz...

~~THE END~~