AHey y'all! Just wanna jump in here and introduce myself and of course I have some questions :). Sorry if this isn't the right place to post all of this My name is April and I'm from south Louisiana.. I've always had a passion for cooking and feeding people. I just found out I like baking too! My 10 yr old son says I should sale my stuff but he's so silly and would probably turn his nose to my baked goods if he ate a pros work lol. But making my babies happy is all that matters. :) Anyway... In 2 weeks I am going to be making my daughter and my nieces (my foster child) birthday cakes. They are both turning 7! They were born 2 weeks apart. And they asked for a my little pony party. Fun fun!! My daughter likes rainbow dash, so I'm going to make the 6 later rainbow cake. I did a practice one last weekend and it was pretty but didn't taste great even tho the kids gobbled it up. I was so dumb and just bought a white cake mix cuz I was lazy and really just wanted to see how it would look layered. The buttercream recipe I made was gross. Don't ask! I have found a lot of buttercream recipes since then that I want to try next. I have visions of her cake that I think I can pull off. I hope! Now for my nieces cake.. She likes twilight sparkle. She wants one of the neopolitan cakes. She is not crazy about vanilla so I thought with 1 or 2 layers of vanilla ( want to make it as tall as the rainbow cake) will be ok. She loves strawberry and chocolate so I think this cake would please her lol. I would like to do a strawberry icing on this cake since I need a pink for twilight sparkle. I just don't know how else to decorate this cake! I was just going to buy the little pony toys to place on top of both cakes so they could play with them afterwards. Any ideas? I can't picture her cake :( rainbows are so much easier. Another quick question.. I was married 15 yrs ago and I can't remember who did my wedding cake. I remember the cake was the best ever! So yummy. It had an icing or frosting whatever you call it that tasted like it had an almond extract taste and if I remember right it had a pleasant sugary gritty taste. I don't know what that was but I want the recipe. Maybe I'm mistaken? Anyway.. So sorry for this long post. Btw I really enjoy this site and I'm driving hubs crazy when I tell him what I'm learning lol

Are you using butter, shortening, or high-ratio shortening.  I noticed a huge difference in my butter-cream icing when I switched to high-ratio shortening.  You can get online or if you have a specialty cake shop.  Not any craft store though like Michaels or Joanns.

As far as what else you can do to the cake.  If you are using a butter cream recipe that crusts over time after the cake has crusted you can do a piping gel transfer.  You just take a My Little Pony coloring book or google image, trace it over parchment paper with piping gel and press it against your crusted icing.  It leaves a outline that looks like the picture.  Here is a video on it:

They teach basic techniques like this at Michaels and Joanns stores.

AI used unsalted land o lakes butter in the buttercream recipe I first found ( not from this site) and then I found a recipe using shortening so I went out and bought the crisco baking sticks and then I read that's not the right stuff. Lol. I don't know of where I can get the high ratio stuff, I live way out in the country.. Walmart a 30 miles away and michaels, hobby lobby is even farther lol. I can't drive far, anxiety issues, so I might have to order online. Is there a buttercream that crusts using all butter? I'm going to search for that. I'm wondering if my wedding cake had a buttercream that crusts. Crust sounds like it would taste sugary and grainy lol like I'm looking for. I'm do new to this bare with me guys.. I can cook almost any Cajun dish you want and I can bake things ok just the decorating is something I want to learn!

It's only the top part that crust and you wouldn't really notice it unless you're feeling for it because it's just a thin layer on top.  Butter usually tastes better, but it can be hard to work with since it's so temperature sensitive.  Plus it has a yellowish tint to it.  If you were looking for all white or need something that can stand a high temperature for an outdoor event, you would use shortening/high ratio shortening.  Just becafreful with ordering it online, especailly during the warmer season.

Don't worry about being new to this, at some point we all were and have made mistakes that we can all laugh at today.  When I teach my class I tell everyone the best learning is done from your mistakes, because it's hard to forget them.  I still make mistakes to this day that are very armature every once in a while. lol

Ahttp://www.peggydoescake.com/2012/03/recipe-crusting-american-butter-cream.html

The above link sounds like the buttercream your looking for, it has your almond extract as well as vanilla but you can switch it up for different flavors. It 'crust' it's a smoothing method for the icing on the cake. I used this recipe a lot when I first started, there's an all butter recipe as well (and her chocolate is yummy!). You can use Crisco or whatever but if you can order a bucket of hi ratio shortening you will notice the difference.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wBMz4wGYM-f4XKECyQEodFVwB0QHjQ2xQCeMG20bmws/mobilebasic

This is a link for popular flavor variations of the WASC (White Almond Sour Cream) cake, it's like a doctored cake mix which will be easier for you if you don't have tried and true recipes already. I would recommend coloring the batter with gel color also order from online or Walmart you won't need as much coloring and it won't mess with the integrity of your cake (try Americolor or Wilton).

Is Twighlight a My Little Pony or do you mean the movie?

AThanks y'all! I'm so happy I found this place! I can't wait to learn

Twilight sparkle is a pony on my little pony friendship is magic series

I am from Louisiana (USA) I use the 10x confectioners sugar.

You guys think strawberry buttercream icing would go well on her neopolitan cake?

Welcome to CC, Neighbor!  I live in central Louisiana! (Alexandria area)

I use the Wilton Buttercram Icing recipe. It has shortening and butter in it.

Are you graduating the size of the layers or all they all one size?

If I searched correctly, this is what I'm thinking. Use light purple for the icing and put pink stars all over it. 

Or if you are really ambitious you could do each layer as if you are making Twilight from feet to head (starting at the bottom:

light blue/green with a darker blue star,

dark blue with pink stripe (tail),

light purple with a pink star (body/hip),

another layer of dark blue with pink stripe for main on back,

light purple with black/white (eyes)

and dark blue again with pink stripe for main on head.

Can't wait to hear all about it! And see pics!

Oops, I missed a layer!  I guess add another dark blue with pink strip in the middle for the main on her back. 

AYes, I've used strawberry icing many times! I have made a Neapolitan cake, yummy! So your making two separate rounds, with different layers? That's a lot of work, I'm sure they'll appreciate it. If your buying the figurines then why not make scenes in the background? The rainbow pony, you can make a sky and grass with rainbow and clouds. For the other you can make an evening scene with stars and the moon maybe some edible glitter.

AIf you don't want pink as your background color, just use the strawberry BC as a filling and plain BC for covering the cakes so you can add your decorations. You could do frozen buttercream designs for the top of the cake if you don't feel comfortable doing it freehand.

AY'all are so awesome! I'm getting visuals of the cakes now. Lets just hope I can put my visions onto cakes that taste yummy lol.