To Summer & Beyond (Easy)

This is a set of seven small (mini) cakes that I did for all the kids that had summer birthdays in my son's class.

Each child got his/her own personalized cake, which they loved! My "theme" was space, with a rocket traveling past all the birthday planets towards the "Jr. High Galaxy" at the other end of the board. Most of the cakes were a made in a 6" pan - Wilton round or small paisley, with the square chessboard cake, Spain, rocket and top of the acropolis cut from sections of a rectangular sheet cake. (For Spain, I printed a picture of Spain, then traced it with a knife to get the shape.) I decorated the cake with tinted buttercream and fondant decorations. See the notes by each picture for more detail. Overall, the cakes took about six hours to finish, but the kids were so excited! Priceless!

Rocket
This was just for fun.  I cut the shape from a larger rectangle of cake, then tapered the sides.  Frosted with large white buttercream stars.  The wings, window and flames are fondant.












Summer in Spain
I cut the shape of Spain out of a rectangular cake and then iced with yellow and red buttercream to mimic the Spanish flag.  I printed a copy of Picasso's Guernica and laminated it using laminating sheets from Office Max.  The little girl is made from fondant. (Note - I fixed the sign to say "feliz cumpleanos" before I served it!)










Camping Trip
The tent is made from graham crackers covered in fondant.  The tree is a sugar cone covered with kelly green stars (using the Wilton #16 tip).  The boy are bear are fondant.  This cake uses the small paisley pan.







A Summer of Baseball
This cake was made with 1/2 of the Wilton sports ball pan.













Chess Camp
Square cake frosted with white buttercream then I overlaid white and black fondant squares (rolled very thin and cut with a ruler) to form the chess board.  I used real chess pieces on top.

Beach Vacation
Round cake frosted with ivory-tinted buttercream.  The sand castle elements are made of fondant - there is a bucket on the other side that you can't see.  I dusted the whole cake with a mix of brown and light sugar to make the sand-effect.  There is a pressed fondant crab on the side.






Summer in Athens (the Acropolis)
This cake was a bit more complex - it's a 6" round cake topped with a rectangle of cake cut from a large cake (that also gave me Spain, the rocket and chessboard).  Covered with white buttercream.  The columns on the Parthenon are white chocolate dipped pretzels.   The top is fondant, with little fondant figures.