Cake Hell - Day 4, CONTINUED

The cake has been carved and this is one of the tiers with a crumb coat of icing on it (a thin coat of buttercream to seal in the crumbs). Now I stick it in the fridge to firm up before I put the final coat of icing on.
While the cakes are chilling, we take a little snack break. I figure the oven's been on all day (remember, I also had to bake the baby shower cakes and the Herbie cake), so we might as well keep on baking. Plus, it's been sleeting / snowing all day and we are WAAAY cooped up.

See my marvelous creativity when it comes to my KIDS? Those are not even slice and bake...all you have to do is dump these out of the bag and put them on the pan. But they are seasoned with love. Heehee. (And also, if you look closely, you'll see that every surface in my kitchen is covered with plastic-wrapped cakes, waiting for room in the freezer.)

Another "Mommy's Little Helper"...frozen lasagna. That's about all anybody gets to eat around here when I've got lots of cake orders. Again, it's totally seasoned with LOVE, and that's all that matters. Right?
The crumb coat has set up on the cakes, and they are ready for the final coat of icing, which must be VERRRRY smooth so the fondant doesn't bubble. This is as smooth as I could get it.

After rolling out a massive lump of blue fondant (which was really hard, and took forever), I roll it around my rolling pin and drape it over the cake. It wasn't quite big enough, and I ended up with some creases along the base of the cake. But that, my friends, is what FLOWERS are for - hiding things. And all these years, you just thought they were there to look pretty.

The middle tier (pink) turns out even worse. LOTS of wrinkles and crinkles, and even further up, which will make them even harder to hide. The way the cakes are tapered at the bottom is making it very difficult to get the fondant smooth. Grrr.
Now, don't be alarmed at the next photo. I had decided that I couldn't make EVERY tier "tilt-y" like the Mad Hatter cake I'm copying, but that making a crooked top tier was possible.

Let me just tell you, it was frightening. It's tapered AND tilted (and a little wobbly), which makes it super hard to ice and fondant.

My fondant job SUCKS on this one. I have lots of things to hide. GRRRRRRRR. But please don't lose confidence in me yet...I'm pretty sure I can still pull of a beautiful cake. At least I'm telling myself that repeatedly. And then to top off the day, after I'm all irritated that I did so badly with the fondant and the doubts are starting to creep in, I discover that my children have done THIS to my Oreo (read: DRUG) supply.

Up next: Decorate 2 baby shower cakes, Herbie cake, and add embellishments to each tier of the Mad Hatter cake (but it won't be totally finished and assembled until Saturday...you think I'm driving with that thing put together????)