Firsts

This cake had a lot of firsts for me.

It was the first time making fondant from scratch on my own.
First time making and using royal icing.
I created a new recipe. Peanut butter & Chocolate--THE ultimate combination.
It was also my first time using a letter stamp (used to stamp the name right into the fondant).

That's four firsts. Hmmm. This was also a 4-person cake.
The party was a combined celebration for four different people. So naturally this cake had to have four different sides, right?

I just have to say making fondant from scratch was awesome and fun! It turned out great, with one exception... I think I added a little too much powdered sugar, thus it was a little dry and cracked. Glad I learned on family though. They don't care. Next time less sugar.
It was really tasty too. Much better than the store-bought stuff.

I didn't have as much fun with the royal icing though. The consistency wasn't right, and I couldn't get it there. I don't know why. I need to do some more research and hopefully next time it will turn out better.

The Peanut Butter and Chocolate cake was incredibly good. Like melt-in-your-mouth good.
It was a chocolate cake; very moist and fluffy. Then there was the frosting. Oh dear, the frosting. It didn't just have a "hint" of peanut butter it WAS peanut butter... with a few other (secret) ingredients. But wasn't overpowering. You could taste the chocolate and peanut butter separately, but of course, they went together very well... as everyone knows it's the ultimate combination!

The letter stamp was fun. Although with the dry, cracking fondant it didn't look as nice as I pictured. But I know that with softer fondant it will look good. I know this because I borrowed the idea from Le Cupcake. It is this amazing blog/bakery in Australia. My friend and I came across it one day while surfing the Internet. I am OBSESSED with her work. Her stamping is (obviously) much cleaner than mine, her colors are vibrant, her work is very clean, the figures (especially the cows) are incredible, and all of her ideas are just gorgeous! I can't get enough!
Too bad she's in Australia (or maybe not, I've been wanting to go there since I was 10) I could just pick her brain for hours and hours!
Check out her kick-ass blog here: http://lecupcake.blogspot.com

So the four-person cake was for, who else? My family. Seems I've been doing a lot of that lately, but I don't mind (neither do they-can you say free cake?) because I get to practice on them, and try new things.

To be honest, I am not overly excited about the way this cake turned out. I did have fun making it though, and it tasted amazing. I AM proud of that.
I know it could have looked better though. Although seeing how a lot of these things I had never tried before makes me feel better about it. It's the perfectionist in me.
See for yourself.

This side was my favorite. I found the design in a magazine, it was an advertisement for jewelry. I did it with royal icing. 

Here's a picture of the ad. 

The only boy on a cake full of girls. I tried to do something more modern and artistic. 

Royal icing flowers. 

Yes, that says Moriah. And no, it's not spelled wrong. I think it's neat. The sugar pearl idea also came from Le Cupcake. 

Square cut-outs filled with silver sugar pearls, and a candle for each person.