Portfolio: Strawberry Shortcake First Birthday Cake

My daughter and I went to another god sister's birthday party this weekend, who was turning one. The theme was Strawberry Shortcake and since I am not a huge fan of character shaped cakes, I made my own twist on it. It's not that I think character cakes are bad, it's the fact that the majority of the ones you see are Wilton cakes, which require a special pan to make the shape. I adhere as strictly as possible to the Alton Brown methodology of "no unitaskers" and those pans are a no no. Besides, I'm perfectly capable of sculpting my own cake shapes. I know I'm going to sound like a real snooty booty when I say this, but I also cannot stand the Wilton method of cake decorating with all of the little stars to make the image. I think that method is great for beginners and even has it's place in some professional designs, but it's not my mien, my genre, or my style. So my design for the birthday girl's character cake is below:


The cake is a simple vanilla flavored butter cake with pink buttercream underneath (the buttercream is actually a combo of American and Swiss) and covered with SatinIce fondant. And here is the birthday girl having demolished most of it. It's kind of funny actually, she was very neat and clean about it which her mom said is very unusual for the child, who usually ends up wearing her food on her clothes and in her hair!


All in all, everyone loved it, especially little Miss Gates herself. Happy first birthday Gates!

Happy Caking,
Kelly