Winter Cake Anyone?

Ashley, from Cute As a Fox, asked me if I would make birthday cakes for her cute little girl and boy.  She wanted a winter themed cake, something small, and maybe one for each so they could both blow out their own candles.  These are the cakes I came up with.  

For the little girl I made a lolipop penguin cake.  The penguin and the lollipops are made from fondant.  I did the piping with buttercream icing and lined the border with mini marshmallows.  I was super excited about how cute my little penguin turned out.  She was really fun to make.

For Ashley's little boy, I made a snowman snow globe cake.  

I should probably mention that this cake found at Giggles Galore was my inspriation.  Ashley sent me the idea on Facebook and I just couldn't refuse the snowglobe idea.  

I made the snowman from fondant, dressed him up and added a couple springs made from aluminum wire behind frosty.  I didn't want the frosted look for my snow globe, so I simply turned the glass bowl upside down, somehow managed to fit frosty and his springs inside, then made a plug of sorts for it to sit on so it would not slide during my commute.

The inside looked like this!  I used a zebra stripe technique I found on Pinterest.  

It started out looking like this....

And ended up like this.  There are a few things I will probably do differently next time.  You can read about how to make a zebra striped cake HERE.  I think the important thing to note is that she used 2  8" pans that are 2" tall.  I use extra deep pans so that I only need one.  It tends to make a more moist cake and requires more batter in one pan.  I am thinking that instead of adding 1/4 cup of each colored batter, I need to double that since the volume of the pan is doubled.  I think if I make that change I will get the desired stripe effect.  Also, I kinda used the measuring cup to push the batter down {just a little}, and I think that ended up swirling the colors rather than just letting them fall where they would.  I will have to try this technique again and let you know how it goes.

They were fun cakes to make for two fun little kids!  Tomorrow I will show you my little birthday gifts for the ladies at church, since we are talking birthdays and all.  See you tomorrow!