This was the first cake I EVER made using rolled fondant. It is a white cake filled with alternating rings of CC frosting and pie cherries (strained from the gooey filling). The flowers are made of marzipan, which I colored. (The flowers were a first as well!) It was for a culinary competition back when I was in culinary school in 2002. The story goes like this: I worked in a 5 star hotel at the time, and worked in the pastry kitchen under a FANTASTIC, classically-trained pastry chef. I had been toying with the idea of entering the culinary salon (competition) but had not made the decision yet. One day at work, while I was in the next room scooping ice cream for a function, my chef was assembling a wedding cake. From a distance, I watched intently as he rolled out the fondant and draped it on the cake and smoothed it out. I thought, "I can do that." I promptly made up my mind to enter the competition, and procurred some fondant and marzipan from my culinary professor. I went home and stayed up ALL NIGHT creating this cake and two other plated desserts. I was so tired that morning, I almost fell asleep at the wheel driving to the competition with my wife. At the competition, there were other cakes, but nothing looked anything like mine. The competition included two culinary schools. I'm proud to say that the cake you see above helped me win a GOLD MEDAL! Winning a gold for something I'd NEVER done before was HUGE!! Incidentally, the next year, I did a tiered fondant cake with a fondant bow on top which garnered me a BRONZE medal. Both awards were very gratifying and strengthened my confidence in the pastry arts.