Ombre Chevron Cake Tutorial

On Tuesday a neighbor of mine asked me if I would PLEASE make a cake for her daughter's birthday today.  How could I say no?  My neighbor secretly re-did her daughter's room in bright green and pink while she was at school today and wanted the cake to match.  I really love it when all I get are the colors and then I can do whatever I want.
The inside of the cake has pink and green cake layers.  The whole time I was baking it I really had no idea what I was going to do.  And then it hit me... Chevron.  And then it hit me again... Ombre Chevron.  For the flower I wasn't really going for a realistic rose,  I wanted it to look more like a large flower you would see on a headband or something.

So here is how to do it.  BTW, I know the tutorial pictures are not the best, but it was at night in my kitchen so the lighting was not the best.
Start by covering your cake in fondant.  I posted the recipe at the bottom of this post.  If you have never done it, don't be scared.  It is SUPER easy.  You will want to roll out your fondant (just like dough, on a lightly greased surface).  Don't roll it too thin (think the thickness of the average plate? I guess).  Then carefully pick it up and set it on top of your cake.  At this point it will look a lot like a table cloth on a little table.  Slowly smooth down the sides.  The fondant will stretch and contract and form to the cake.  Then I used a pizza cutter to cut off any extra from around the bottom.

Next use food coloring to die your fondant green.  I used a mixture of AmeriColor Electric Green and the plain ol' green food coloring you get at the grocery store.  Just add a few drops right to the fondant and knead it in.
Then roll out your piece of green fondant.

I used a quilting grid and a pizza cutter to then cut my fondant into half inch strips.  Then I turned the grid on its diagonal and made 1.5 inch cuts.

You end up with something that kinda looks like this.  Then just stick those bad boys on the cake.

You may need to use a paint brush and a little water to make them stick nicely.  I also didn't put a lot of thought into the chevron meeting up once I went all the way around the cake, so as you get close you may want to slightly adjust the width of your triangles to make it line up in the end.   Or you could do a whole lot of geometry and measuring to make sure they will line up and be perfectly even, but that is above my pay grade and it is just cake not rocket science.  In the end it will just be eaten and no one will care. :)

Once you have done the first stripe, take your leftover green and add about an equal amount of white to it.  Mix those together and you will have your slightly lighter color for the next stripe.  Repeat the process until the cake is covered.

I also made some cute little cupcakes to go along with the cake.  You can follow my tips for pretty cupcakes to make some that look like these.  For the butterfly I mixed some gumpaste (you can buy the pre-made stuff or just add some gumpaste powder) to my fondant so it would dry faster and harder.  Then I just rolled it out, used a butterfly cookie cutter, and laid it over the edge of a casserole dish.

Easy Buttercream:

1.5 cups butter

1.5 cups shortening

2 lbs powder sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp butter flavor/extract

milk to wanted consistency

Cream together the butter and shortening.  Mix in extracts.  Beat in sugar.  Then add milk.

Marshmallow Fondant

16 oz bag of mini marshmallows

2 lbs bag powder sugar

4 TBLS water

Pour marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl.  Pour the water over the top of the marshmallows.  Place in microwave for 3 mins taking it out and stirring it every 30 secs.   It may not need the whole 3 mins.  You just want all the marshmallows to be melted.  

Then I like to leave it in the bowl and a little at a time mix in powder sugar.  Once I am about half way through the sugar.  I lightly grease my hands and counter with shortening.  Then I knead in the rest of the sugar by hand.  You may need to re shortening your hands, just don't over shortening your fondant because it will make it all fall apart-e.  Got that.  You will probably need the whole bag of sugar. 

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