The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Last year I made a cake that I was so unimpressed by and simultaneously disappointed in that I didn't even post it on my blog. Because of that catastrophe, I had to make this second cake awesome. So let me explain....

Lisa, my mentor, was one of the first people to tell me to follow my dreams of caking (which was funny because she was concurrently my mentor helping me earn a Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD degree). When she had Sheridan, her first beautiful baby boy, I HAD to do the cake for his first birthday. The only problem was that I live in Salt Lake and she lives in Sacramento. I decided to make a fake cake for her and ship it to her to put on top of a real cake that she served to the guests. Sheridan was loving the song about monkeys jumping on a bed so I made a bed with Sheridan's favorite afghan on it and then made monkeys that looked like they were jumping on the bed. I lovingly wrapped the monkeys in bubble wrap hoping it would help them stay together which totally backfired because the fondant must have warmed up on the way over and the monkeys all had a bubble wrap texture (NOT what I had originally wanted). Then, it just so happens that monkeys made from fondant don't like to travel very nicely so most of them broke in the mail (I made double the amount needed and I think almost all of them broke). Poor Lisa ended up doing late-night-monkey-surgery in order to get the monkeys back into shape for the cake.

Now, back to this cake. This year, Sheridan's favorite song is the Itsy Bitsy Spider so I wanted to make a cake with that theme. Since I had to go above and beyond the last cake-tastrophe, I made this a three tiered cake with multiple spiders and a huge sun that stood out of the cake. I was so happy with the result and packaged it lovingly once again with plastic wrap. I added special instructions on how to get the legs for the spiders in the corresponding holes and prayed all night for a safe travel. I am happy to report that the cake made it nearly without a scratch. There was a tiny piece on the back of the cake that broke off but all the spiders and tiers made it perfectly.

The general idea here was that the Itsy Bitsy spider was going to go up the water spout on the side of a yellow house with orange rose bushes. Then, the water washed that little spider out, hence his little sad face. Finally, the sun came out and dried up all the rain and that lil' itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again. I think Lisa's description (and singing) is much better so here you go: http://geneticenhancement.blogspot.com/2010/08/minor-spider-surgery.html

Everything on this "cake" was made out of fondant and technically edible. I'm so just so happy that Sheridan got a cake that was up to my standards :) I can't wait for next year's cake!! Happy Birthday, Sheridan!!!