'Toy Story' Birthday Cake

My oldest (gasp!) son's birthday was November 29th. My little big man has turned four. Going on forty. As usual, I decided to make his birthday cake.

I really try to do that with both the boys, my youngest Nick-kinda got shafted this year. We were in the middle of a move, and I just didn't make him a a cake. He didn't party either (well, we had a little one at my Aunts house with my husband on the webcam) I seem to feel like my little man gets the shaft. I'm going to make a BIG effort to give him at least a rocking cake next year! At 3, I don't know how many other friends he'll have since I'm a SAHM and he won't be starting a sport until after his birthday. (Soccer!- It's adorable when the really little ones play!)

On to the cake. Jackson and Nicholas are HUGE Toy Story fans. I don't know a kid that hasn't been captivated by those movies. I gotta admit they are adorable. I like them too, just like I really like the Shrek movies (by the way, you can pre-order on amazon for $40 for the set of blu-rays!-Christmas present here!) There I go off the topic again.

I made a white wedding cake- moist, slightly dense, solid flavor. With an Oreo creme filling. The filling rocked my world. I was eating it alone. With a spoon. In the basement. It was so good. The top was a butter yellow cake with a chocolate whipped ganache. 8" and 6" respectively. In my dense mind I forgot that I needed 4" cakes (in height- exactly) for my usual stacking system (it's what happens when you haven't made a cake in almost 6 months). So I had beautiful tall layers- which I love, but that required me to go back to the straw stacking system. Since we didn't have to travel. That worked. Both are covered in a buttercream flavored fondant. (fondx) I have made my own fondant- and I like it, but I had this bucket from a while ago and I needed to use it. And I didn't want the extra mess.

The rest of the decor is fondant. With the exception of the silver stars. Those are gumpaste. I free handed the clouds on paper and traced onto the fondant (if you can't tell- they're not quite right) same with the cow "spots". The red pearl border is a first impressions mold that I've recently decided I love. And the rope border was made with a clay extruder (found at local craft stores in the clay section- only used with food though).

Needless to say. He loved the cake. Even without it saying "Toy Story" on it- he knew right away what it was! I had contemplated adding a Buzz and Woody on the top (plastic figurines) but I decided against at the last minute, going for the set-up you see.

If there's any questions you might have, I'd LOVE to try and answer them! But I gotta say Cake Central is a huge part of getting me started in cakes!


Oh- and it's snowing here. Christmas is coming!!