I'm no cake boss...

Okay, so I've been wanting to start making the birthday cakes for the kids' birthday parties for years, but in the interest of saving time and my sanity, we would end up buying a cake instead. However, the last few cakes that we have had have been extremely disappointing, especially since one of them came from Cake Gallery, which is supposed to be one of the best bakeries in Omaha. I decided I wanted to try to make a Michigan jersey cake for Kyle this year. I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant and made my own from scratch. To save time, since I was simply wanting to practice fondant, as I can make cakes from scratch without difficulty, I used a boxed cake. BIG MISTAKE! It fell apart as it cooled. So, needless to say, it showed once the fondant was on, despite my buttercream frosting I used to put it back together. You'll notice that the fondant is green and yellow. Well, I'd forgotten to save some for blue, so I ended up with green WHOOPS! Anyway, I'm not too crazy about making fondant...it's very time-consuming, EXTREMELY messy, and very temperamental. 

Jim asked me to try to do buttercream instead. I didn't want to, as it doesn't look as sleek as fondant...well...maybe it would look better than MY fondant, but you get my point. :) I made a buttercream frosting from scratch and attempted again. Here is what I did with the cake after it cooled. Nevermind one of the sleeves is backwards...this was just my trial cake. :) 

 Here is my buttercream frosting that I made. I split it up so that I wouldn't accidently color all of it the same color. :) 

 Once it was colored, I used one of my Wilton bags and a small tip to decorate. 

This was very hard to frost. I realized midway that a butterknife is very helpful with buttercream! I decided to make his jersey Number 11 since that's his birthday age. 

Jim liked the buttercream better, and I was surprised by the yummy taste, so we decided to go with that instead of fondant....this year. :) However, Michigan changed their jerseys this year, so he asked me to follow suit. I did not, however, make stripes on the sleeves. :) I'm still a newbie at this! Here is the actual birthday cake!

I realize the M has some issues, but I did this after working a 14 hr shift, I was also on-call at this time, and it was at least midnight. We finished around 2 am. I was a bit tired and stressed out. :)