Who Let the Dogs Out?

Jim and Amie are good friends of mine who attend group swing dance classes with me at Chicago Dance Factory.  They are so much fun!  They are always hamming it up and making me laugh.  I had the privilege of competing in West Coast Swing with Jim.  They are some of my favorite people and I always enjoy hanging out with them.  Unfortunately, whenever we go out to eat, we end up with one of us having a bug(s) in our food!  So far Jim has escaped unscathed . . . . .

The week before Amie's birthday, Jim asked me if I could make her a cake.  He didn't really have any specifications, other than requesting chocolate.  Amie has a dog, Petunia, that she loves very much, so I decided to make a puppy cake.  No, this is not a replica of Petunia.  Amie said it would have been difficult to eat a cake that looked like her dog.  (Obviously it's not because I don't have the ability to make an exact replica of a real, live dog).

Now since the last fiasco with the fondant, I was very, very nervous about this cake.  It was a similar concept, with a dome instead of a ball covered in fondant.

I used the small sports ball pan again but only made half.  This would be the head.

I made an 8-inch round cake and the larger sports ball pan went on top of that.  I did have to carve it down a little bit to get the shape that I wanted.

Then I frosted both and put them in the fridge to harden.

Here was the moment of truth.  Would the fondant fail me again?  I opened the package of plain white fondant and relief swept over me.  It was soft and pliable, like PlayDoh, the way fondant was meant to be.  I rolled it out, covered the smaller cake, and . . . . .

Perfection!  No rips or tears.

The bigger one was slightly more challenging because it was, well, bigger.

But that one came out great too.

Then I put the two pieces together on the cake board.

I made three white feet and one black foot out of fondant.

Here's the three white feet.

And the black one.

The nose.

I freehanded the ears.

I added blue eyes with a little bit of blue fondant I had left over.

Finally I added the spots on the back and the tail.

Okay, now the collective, "awwwwwwwwww!!!"

I'm not a dog person, but that's a cute puppy dog face . . .

View from the rear.

I snuck the cake into class before Amie arrived.  Then afterwards, we surprised her with it and ate cake in the back room.  It was a hit!

Happy birthday Amie!!!!