*Cake Walk*

Honey Bee Cake: Hive-shaped yellow cake with lemon frosting, covered in yellow fondant with sugar daisies and fondant bees

Pirate Treasure Island Cake: Large chocolate loaf cake filled with candy jewels and wrapped chocolates, on top of a chocolate cake "island" covered in brown sugar surrounded by a blue and white frosting "ocean"-the pirate flag is fondant on top of broken chocolate sticks

Mad Tea Party Cake: Table- 1/4 sheet strawberry cake covered in pink fondant; Tea Cup- chocolate jumbo cupcake covered in fondant; Watch and- sugar cookies covered in fondant, written on with food coloring pens

Nothing screams school carnival like a Cake Walk! After a few sorrowful attempts at cakes in the past (the long forgotten Angels baseball hat and ladybug cake-two words: red frosting-and a sad little beach scene with paper cocktail umbrellas...) I finally got serious last year and was determined to ramp it up.  Oddly enough, my original plans ended up happening in reverse, with my "Mad Tea Party" cake being the one I threw together the night before the carnival opened-luckily it was early dismissal the next day and I could catch up on my ZZZZZs in the afternoon! The Bee Hive cake was so cute, I loved making the little bees (if you look closely, you'll see them smiling!) And with the advent of the final installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and the height of piratefandom, I had to do a pirate themed cake. 

In case you were wondering if I'm nuts for not only attempting to reign in  the level of chaos in a classroom while a carnival is being constructed all around you, but to then make not 1, but 3 cakes, yes, you hit the nail on the head.  Sure I needed about 5 days of straight sleep afterwards, but you can never be bummed out when working with cake! 

I can't believe I've only been using it for a year, it's hard to think back to the time before sugar fondant entered my life. What a gift from the cake gods! It's like edible Play-dough.  Any time you get to play with your food promises to be a great day.  This was also my first time using "Luster Dust", an edible decorative super-fine glitter that's used dry to brush over fondant or when liquid is added, turns into a kind of metallic paint. If I had my way, every baked good would be glammed up with Luster Dust...

By the way, on the "Mad Tea Party" cake, the watch is actually a fondant covered cookie and the tea cup is concealing a chocolate cupcake! Cheerio!