Rainbow Happy Animals Cake

This cake was already giving me happy vibes just thinking about all the bright rainbow colours and animals, and even more so after I did the sketch! This rainbow animal cake is to celebrate the milestone 1st birthday of a happy, lovely little boy! 

Each of the cake's two tiers are 5-colour, rainbow vanilla butter cakes filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. I'm still working on finding a recipe that makes a lighter, fluffier texture that holds up well under fondant, so if you have one, would love if you could share it!

rainbow & sun topper*

The first fondant topper to make was the rainbow, since I wanted to be sure it was completely hard and dry so that it would be able to stand up on the cake. After colouring the fondant, I rolled out 5 "snakes" and then shaped them into an arch around a circle cookie cutter, brushing the areas where the colours join with a little bit of water so they stick together. The ends of the rainbow were cut straight with the help of a ruler, and then toothpicks were gently poked into the ends to help support the rainbow. I let the rainbow dry flat for a good 8 hours in air-conditioning before standing it up.

Giraffe fondant topper

Now, onto the animal figurines. First up, the giraffe. I love giraffes! My daughter does too. She prefers to call them chang ching loo! (Chinese for giraffe) For this little guy, I formed his body first and then stuck a skewer straight through to support his long neck. The arms and legs were attached using a little bit of water. I then made his head and let that dry separately, making sure to pre-make the hole at the bottom where the skewer would attach his head onto the body. If you don't pre-make the hole and try to attach the fully dried head onto the skewer in the body, the head will likely develop ugly cracks!

cute giraffe*

The technique for making the cow is similar to the giraffe, except that only a toothpick is necessary instead of a long skewer, since cows don't really have much of a neck. I like to give the animals a little spot of white on their black eyes cuz it gives them a little bit more life.

moo-cow

The tricky part for the rabbit is getting his ears to stand vertically without the use of toothpicks. Well, there's no actual trick to it. His ears were rolled out a bit more thinly and then attached onto his head with a dab of water. Instead of laying the head flat to dry, I actually let it dry in an egg white separator cup which has a rounded bottom, so that his head remains round. The edges of the separator cup helped to support his ears until they fully dried. 

orange rabbit!

What you don't see in the pictures is that each animal actually has a cute little tail! I found out afterwards that one of the birthday boy's sisters was a "cow" and the other is a "rabbit" in the Chinese zodiac, and one of them has orange as a favourite colour!

very colourful Rainbow cake!

For the sun peeking behind the rainbow, I cut out 2 sizes of fondant circles, attached them with water, and then free-hand cut the spikes of the sun's rays and added the face. After letting the sun dry flat, right side up for a little while, I flipped it over and attached a skewer, which is necessary to support it in the cake, then let it dry upside down. You must make sure to let the sun dry right-side up first before attaching the skewer, or else the "rays' will droop when you flip it upside down.

at the party*

Since the cakes were pretty tall, the tops of the cakes were covered first, and then the sides, instead of using one large piece of fondant. To finish off the top tier, I free-handed some clouds, put the rainbow topper on and added another couple clouds at the base of the rainbow.  

A very Happy 1st Birthday to John-Paul!*

The bottom tier was simply decorated with a border of rainbow balls, and the birthday boy's name, in rainbow colours too! I'm loving the overall look of the cake! So happy, colourful and bright! I love making cakes, and seeing the happy smile on people when they see the final cake makes it all worth while! Making cakes makes me happy too, which is the reason I do it :) Wishing the birthday boy a very happy 1st birthday! 

*photo courtesy of John Paul's mummy and daddy