- 1). Thin out a small portion of the buttercream frosting in a bowl with one or two spoonfuls of milk, until it is thin enough to spread smoothly over the cake surface without pulling up crumbs.
- 2). Apply the thinned frosting to the firm cake with the icing knife, creating a smooth, slick surface -- known as a crumb coat -- over all exposed cake. The crumb coat prevents crumbs from poking through additional layers of frosting and helps fondant slide into place without catching.
- 3). Put the crumb-coated cake in the refrigerator or freezer for at least one hour to help it set up and become more firm.
- 4). Add color to a larger portion of the white buttercream frosting by mixing it with the selected food coloring. Use green for grassy background for flowers and pink or purple for quirky cakes featuring summer treats like Popsicles and ice cream cones. Mix up yellow frosting in one bowl and blue in another for beach cakes.
- 5). Ice the entire crumb-coated cake with the colored frosting, using the icing knife. For the beach cake, frost one-half of the cake yellow and the other half blue.
- 6). Color portions of the white fondant by placing a few drops of food coloring and molding the fondant like clay to blend in the color. Roll the colored fondant out into 1/4-inch sheets to cut out shapes with cookie cutters, such as flowers or rectangle beach towels, or mold the fondant into 3-D shapes, such as Popsicles and ice cream cones.
- 7). Add textural decorations to the cake to create diorama-like scenes on the cake. Color coconut with green food coloring to create grass for floral cakes or sprinkle a light coat of brown sugar over the yellow half of the beach cake to create sand. Shake multicolored sprinkles to add texture to the pink or purple cake featuring the summer ice cream treats.
- 8). Add the fondant decorations to the cake. Fill the pastry bag, tipped with the small round piping tip, with the remainder of the white, buttercream frosting. Write a birthday greeting and the guest of honor's name on the cake. Place the birthday candles on the cake.
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