Cake and Cupboard Cake

I love polka dots!  They just seem very versatile and cute!  I can think of a thousand polka dot things that I love: polka dot fabric, polka dot ribbon, polka dot pillows.  I could go on. I even have a favorite polka dot sweater. Soooo, I have always wanted to make a polka dot cake and specifically I have always wanted to make a cake that looks like the one in our logo!  My brilliant husband designed the logo, and of course it is perfect for me considering my love of everything polka dot, and my love of cakes.  So what could be better than a polka dot cake that looks just like the one in our logo?

I looked at my round cutters to find a fairly small size for the polka dots.  I ended up using a 3/4″ round cutter and I designed the scallops using a piece of cardstock that I cut into a pattern.  The cake is covered in white fondant and then a layer of dark brown gumpaste that went about 3/4 of the way down the cake.  I laid the cardstock pattern against the fondant and cut the scallops using an exacto knife, being careful not to cut into the white fondant behind. I then used a ruler to mark the placement of the dots and I cut those out with the 3/4″ round cutter and filled them in with the 3/4″ dots I had cut out of pink gumpaste. Voila!  As far as time, this cake is one of the quickest and most simple I have made.  I love simple designs, but also find that the simpler the design, the more perfect it needs to be because the flaws really show.

You can see some creased fondant and overcuts in the brown gumpaste. I was in a bit of a hurry with this one (just trying to fit it in during my baby’s naps) so it is not flawless, but I still think it’s a super cute cake.  As with all cakes, there are things I would do differently if I did it again. The cake is a 7″ round cake and next time I would go with a 6″ round cake to elongate the shape and give more height.  You can’t tell but the middle cake layers are actually smaller (probably 6 to 6-1/2″ in diameter) to give the cake sort of an hourglass figure as it appears in the logo.  This effort was definitely lost, but I think it would show up better on a taller 6″ cake.  The other thing I would do is lose the cake drum bottom and just have the cake sit directly on the pedestal for an appearance more similar to the logo.  In this case the cake drum was necessary.  I made the cake for my own birthday adventure which was bike riding  around Angel Island, and I knew it would be going on a bumpy ride so I designed it for maximum stability (it is doweled into the cake drum).  Maybe it is just because I love polka dots, but I feel like it is a fun and simple cake that could work for birthdays, showers, anniversarys, etc.  I hope you had fun taking a look.  I am sure there will be more polka dot cakes in my future!