Elephant Baby Shower Cake

My good friend, Amanda, is having a baby boy!

Her colors are yellow and gray, so we thought an elephant theme for the shower would be fun.

Even though making the gray icing made me think of a line from the movie Steel Magnolias, I still love the way this cake turned out!

What You Need:
Cake -
   I used two 8" x 2" round layers
    and two 5" x 2" round layers
   I made my favorite Chocolate Cake Recipe (1 1/2 time the recipe)
Icing -
   I made a double batch of Rich Vanilla Buttercream (SMBC)
    I took 3 cups out for the yellow, and dyed the rest gray.
   You will also need a piping bag and tip #104.

Elephant and Letter Decorations -
   Fondant - colored gray (You only need about 4-6 oz. of fondant)
   Rolling pin
   Cut-outs: Elephant, petal or tear-drop & letters

A day or so ahead of time, you'll need to make the elephant and letters out of fondant, so that they can dry.
I cut the fondant thick - about 1/4-1/2" thick, and inserted toothpicks into the bottom to allow it to stand well on the cake.

To decorate the cake, start by icing the bottom tier with a thin layer of the gray icing.

To mark the sides for the ruffle, I used a trick I saw from Martha Stewart... cut a piece of parchment paper into the size of the cake, then fold it... if you look, in the picture you can see the divisions.

Use an icing spatula to make the marks down the side of the cake. I ended up dividing each of the marks I'd made with the paper into two, for a total of 32 divisions on the big cake.

These lines are the width of the ruffles.
Click the link For a More Complete Tutorial on How to Make a Ruffled Cake.

Before adding the ruffles to the top, add a (food-safe) dowel rods for strength.
I admit that I used drinking straws instead of dowel rods for this cake. As a general rule, I don't use drinking straws, but because the top cake was only 5", I decided that the drinking straws would hold it. I DO NOT recommend drinking straws for most tiered cakes.

Before placing the second tier on top, place it on a piece of cardboard the same size as the bottom of the cake. Cover it with a thin layer of yellow icing, and mark the divisions.

*Note: I made 16 divisions on this cake. I think it would have been better if I'd have found a way to divide it by 24 instead as the ruffles got a little wide.

Place the yellow cake on top of the gray cake-- AFTER you have already piped the ruffles on the top of the gray, but BEFORE you add the ruffles to the yellow cake.
Add your yellow ruffles to the sides and top and voila! beautiful cake!

*Note: If you need to transport the cake, you may want to add a dowel rod through the cake. This will run through the top cake, cardboard and into the bottom cake. For a better description of how this works, see my Tutorial on Making a Tiered Cake here. Add the dowel before adding the ruffles to the top layer.

Place the elephant and the letters.
Love it!

Click the Links Below to See:
How to Cover a Cake with Icing
How to Make a Ruffle Cake
How to Color Icing
Fondant 101
Baby Shower Cake Pops

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