Neapolitan Birthday Cake!

Happy Spring everyone! I am thrilled that the weather seems to be getting warmer, even if just for the next couple of days. I have lots of things to do in the garden to get ready for planting season.

But today let's talk about cake!

I made this a few weeks ago for a friend's daughter's birthday party. I am so happy with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I don't have pictures of the part where I baked all the cakes. But I made chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry for a neapolitan cake.

I made a small batch of regular Marshmallow fondant, colored it, and added in tylose powder to help the decorations hold their shape a little better. 

2 sticks of softened butter. Where every good frosting starts...

I made 3 different frostings to correspond to the flavors of the cakes. For the strawberry buttercream I  added in about 1/4 cup reduced strawberry puree. 

It smelled like mayfield strawberry ice cream and tasted delicious!

Then I made a chocolate buttercream for the chocolate layer.

Finally I made a large batch of regular buttercream. Some I left white for the filling and some I colored blue for the icing. 

To make the flowers, I pinched off a very small bit of fondant and rolled it into a ball and then rolled it flat into a circle. 

I put four slices into it to make 5 petals, and then I cut diagonally on both sides of each petal to make it look like a petal :).

I rounded out the edges and pinched the back so the flower would be 3-dimensional.

For the middle of the flower I took some pink fondant and rolled it into a little ball, put a dap of water onto it, and pressed it into the flower. 

The strawberries I shaped by hand and then used a pen with saran wrap on it to make the dents. 

To make the strawberry tops I just make a semi circle with a little bit of green fondant. 

Then I took 3 notches out of it and shaped it with my fingers before placing it with a dab of water on top of each strawberry. 

Decorations complete.

I torted each layer and filled with the corresponding icing flavor.

I made a 9 inch tier and a 6 inch tier.

Before smoothing.

After smoothing. 

Ready for decorations!

I am so happy with how it turned out and I heard that everyone enjoyed the cake immensely!

I made a mini cake for Chris and I out of leftovers. It wasn't valentines day. haha It was just the closest holiday I could think of at the moment. We thoroughly enjoyed our cake as well! I will post recipes soon.