This is our first cake (my husband & myself). Going away cake for my sil--(we love dia de los muertos). Some observations-- we made Michelle Foster's fondant recipe in our 1970's sunbeam mixmaster--the motor blew up within seconds so hubster had to mix it all by hand--so not too bad considering!

The photo is my photo section, not sure how to put a link to that in here tho--

It's missing some gumpaste goodies, we left the gumpaste little skulls and flowers on the counter to dry--counter surfing lesson learned when you have a saint bernard and an english mastiff, 2 flowers were completely gone and the little skulls had teeth marks in them! Luckily we could just tell my sil not to eat them


I was going to put a black ribbon fondant around the bottom, but couldn't get a black color using the wilton colors, so I scrapped it and then ran out of time so the bottom is not very pretty --should I just buy black fondant next time?

Also, I tried the paper towel method to smooth the icing before the fondant (chilled the cake for an hour first), and the paper towel took off a nice area of icing--am I doing something wrong?

Also, I guess we need a new mixer now--any suggestions?
Thanks!

The cake looks really cool and I give you bonus points for your own style.

It takes a lot of food coloring to get black. I suggest you get premade.

It seems like the icing hasn't crusted very well enough for the papertowel to stick to it. Maybe it's the recipe?

Thanks! Sounds like buying the black would be easier--
I think it was the icing, not crusting enough probably.
On to cake 2!

Lori