The Frog Prince Birthday Cake

I’m a little jealous that kids nowadays can easily get birthday cakes like this.  Everything on this cake is edible, even the crown and the frog.

The two tiered were first enrobed in rolled fondant and then covered with individually placed fondant leaves.  I cut out the leaves in various sizes and pressed them one by one into a veining mat to get texture.  I used a combination of three shades of green to create some dimension.

The pink flowers are made from marzipan (almond paste with a whole lot of sugar).  Yes, I make marzipan roses a lot (check out my carrot nut cake).  I like working with marzipan, and sometimes I find it a little easier than gum paste.  With marzipan, there is no drying time involved.  You can keep adding petals to the piece without waiting for the previous petals to set.  The only downside, marzipan is a lot more expensive than gum paste and fondant.

The crown is made from a 30/70 mixture of fondant and gum paste.  After it dried, I painted it with gold luster duster thinned out with a little vodka.  The vodka will dry out and leave a nice gold sheen.  I made the little frog prince from fondant mixed with a little tylose c (sodium carboxymethylcellulose, also known as CMC) to get the firmness I wanted.  Tylose is added to fondant to make gum paste.  It is often used as a stabilizer in ice cream, dairy products and soft drinks as well.  You can easily purchase it online from Pfeil & Holing or Country Kitchen.

This is the first fondant cake I’ve made since moving back to Los Angeles.  I’m quite pleased with the results and I can’t wait to make more cakes once the weather has cooled down a bit.  It can be a little tricky rolling out fondant when its hot and humid, especially because I’m known to have hot hands that stick to sugar.