Skiing Snowmen Cake

A couple of years ago I took a cake decorating class. I'd considered it previously and had always put it off because I knew I would really enjoy it. A strange reason to put it off you say? Maybe, but I do that only because I know that the last thing I need is another hobby (aka another reason to spend money on supplies for my hobby and another thing to try to fit into my schedule that is already busy with family, work and lots of hobbies). And once I find one that I like, I usually take it and run.

On a related note, it was the same with scrapbooking. I put that off for a while too, but then was invited to a scrapbooking 'party' (like a Tupperware party) at a friend's house. That was all it took and I was off and running. And now, almost 10 years later, with about 20 or so 12x12 scrapbooks, many tiny scrapbooks, vacation scrapbooks, gift scrapbooks, hundreds of papers, embellishments, die cuts, scissors, paper punches, tools, glues, adhesives, stickers, etc I've taken it pretty far and enjoy it completely. I haven't spent a lot of time on it lately - I'm about 2 years behind now on pictures, but I still plan to catch up and still have it all laid out and ready and occasionally will whip out a page.

But back to the cake thing. I knew once I started I would get into it completely. And I did. I took the 3 basic Wilton classes then the Fondant and Gum Paste class. I had so much fun! I'm creative. I like to make things and making them out of cake and frosting is just as much fun as paper and scissors and glue. I have a lot of cake pans in all sizes, bags and tips for piping frosting, spatulas, cake boards, dowels, food colors, fondant rollers and cutters. All the fun stuff I need to make cool and fun cakes.

The latest cake was one I made for a birthday party for the visiting cousins from down south. Knowing that they were looking forward to snow that they rarely get to see any longer I decided to go with a snowy theme. I piped snowflakes around the bottom layer and decorated with marshmallow snowmen on skis, ice-cream cone Christmas trees (awesome idea courtesy of Bakerella), and dangling snowflakes. All in all I think it came out pretty nice. The dangling snowflakes didn't come out exactly how I wanted (I need to find a better way to afix things like that sometime when I'm not in a hurry), but it was close enough. And other than one little mishap with a snowman making a face-print in the snow when he tumbled off his skis and down the slope, it was pretty smooth going this time around. All in all, pretty successful.

Here are some pictures:

Quack!