COOKING: Mini Three Tiered Cakes

I tried my hand at mini wedding cakes again. This was mainly to use up the rest of my buttercream I had. Then after I baked the cakes, I realized that because of the lack of crisco (replaced with butter), that it didn't hold up very well and was incapable to being piped, especially into drop lines, which was what I had intended.

So, I switched gears and decided to experiment with fondant. Something that Buddy Valastro does often is drape fanned fondant. This is particularly hard to do on a mini cake, as fondant, no matter how thinly rolled, is quite heavy when it's folded, and the mini cakes had little shelf to offer support. It still managed to work though.

I also tried a fondant rose. Normally sculptures are made from modeling chocolate (and now I understand why) but I've heard of some using fondant. I wouldn't recommend it, but it worked out ok once it had time it harden.

I also tried out making same sized pearls, as I'll be using these next month. That was pretty easy, but I had to resist the temptation to use my luster dust on them!

The second cake was done very quickly. I had a baby crying, two dogs underfoot, and my fondant was trying to harden. So it looks pretty terrible, but understanding how to marble and stripe fondant with other colors was worth it. And I practiced braiding.

Here's the mini cakes: