Giraffe Themed First Birthday Cake

I love how Aiden's cake turned out.  As soon as I saw the invitation for his birthday, I fell in love with the theme...I just love giraffe's!

The cake was a 9 inch White Almond Cake filled with fresh strawberries and Strawberry Italian Meringue Buttercream and the top tier was a 6 inch Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream.  The entire cake was covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant, the giraffe was made out of modeling chocolate.

Modeling Chocolate Giraffe

Ain't he cute?  I made the bottom half of the giraffe's body out of rice crispy treats that was shaped into a rounded pyramid then covered it over with modeling chocolate.  l made the modeling chocolate using the Merkens Yellow Candy Coatings (recipe for modeling chocolate found here) and added a little bit of Egg Yellow AmeriColor to it to get the right shade.  All the little details on him is Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).

The leaves were made a few day prior out of MMF mixed with Tylose (helps it dry faster and harder) and placed over wrinkled foil to give the leaves some random and natural curves to it as they dried.  I later painted the darker green leaves with white gel colors to match the ones on the invitation and trimmed the bottom of each leaf to fit flushed up against the giraffe.  I attached the leaves to the cake with a little bit of clear piping gel.

The bottom tier was designed to match the border on the invitation.  His name and the #1 on the front of the cake were made in black MMF then dusted over with blue pearl dust - I love the effect.  The white round piece behind the #1 was dusted in edible glitter.

Photo of the invitation and some of the 3 dozen Cupcake Toppers

I also made 3 dozen assorted cupcake toppers for the mommy to add to their own cupcakes.

Photo courtesy of Saira B.