40th Birthday Cake

 

A friend of mine asked me to make a cake for her husband's 40th birthday party.  She had a huge party, family flew in from out of town to surprise him, they "kidnapped" him from work and took him to his own "funeral" where everyone was dressed in black and they even had a "funeral program" for the party.  I told my husband when I turn 40 (which isn't for a while ;) he better not throw me a party like that!  I think it's a male thing.

*Note to any men reading this post......DO NOT throw your wife or ANY FEMALE an "over the hill/funeral" party unless you are 1,000% sure she will be okay with it. :)  Even then I would suggest otherwise. :)

Here are a few photos of how I made it:

To color white fondant use a toothpick to put Wilton food coloring on it. 



 I specify "Wilton" because the cheap grocery store liquid drops will not work.

Play with the fondant like a taffy puller until all the color is mixed in.  You will want to wear gloves to mix the coloring, it was quite messy.

Shape the fondant into the form you would like and let it sit til it starts to get dry so it won't lose it's form.

I started out with a "cone" shape and added individual petals until I got the desired size of bud.

For the stem I wrapped a bamboo skewer with the green fondant and attached green leaves I cut out with a knife.


You can't tell from the photos, but I splattered the "headstone" with black food coloring then frosted it smooth.  This gave it a really neat "stone" look.

*Tip: black frosting is nearly impossible to make.  The more black food coloring you add the darker your gray gets.  I add black food coloring to chocolate frosting.  This helps get the frosting darker faster.  Also, you can buy black pre-made frosting.  This also is true of red frosting. :)