The girls' 7th birthday party was held at a local roller skating rink. I wanted to have the cake look like an old pair of skates (I kept thinking poodle skirts and kitty cat glasses!) and other than a few cracks in the wheels, I think it turned out pretty good.
I made the skates out of a basic yellow cake, covering the cake with an off white tinted fondant from a recipe I found online, and pink fondant laces. I painted stitching on the fondant and added some distress lines to show use. The top of the cake is covered in yellow fondant and painted to looked old, although from this picture it looks un-iced, its not un-iced cake. The wheels are solid blocks of chocolate covered in pink fondant. I carved the blocks into wheels - that was a bit tiring and trying! I tried dipping them in white chocolate, but everything kept melting. In the end I used fondant to cover them, but it wasn't the best. I probably should have tried to find large blocks of white chocolate and just paint them with icing gel. The base is a flourless chocolate torte (a few guests with gluten allergies attended the party). The lighting in the rink is quite bad for photography, and although I did not use any artificial coloring for this cake, nothing was as yellow as it appears!
A moment to discuss non artificial coloring. I'm a big proponent of organics. I check all food labels before I purchase anything and try to buy everything I can that is organic, non-GMO, grassfed, etc. The school year of 2012 - 2013 I tried to have the tea party and any subsequent parties using only naturally derived food dyes. Unfortunately, the colors are very, very dull and the supplies to make the icings are very expensive. Adding salt to the wound, you need to discard them essentially before the next party because they have a very short shelf life - making them more expensive. I know I'm asking for everything (no pun have your cake and eat it too), but hey, I can ask... Business opportunity for somebody!!! A cake supply source with one that has incredibly vibrant colors, affordable, and all made from organic sources, not chemicals. Getting back to the cake... the only non food item are some bamboo skewers connecting the wheels and a thin cake board cut to the shape of the boot that was covered in aluminum foil. In hind sight, I wish I had just covered it in fondant instead of aluminum foil. I was finishing the cake around 2 or 3 am the morning before the party and I wasn't thinking the clearest.
In the end, the kids skated, the cake eaten, and fun had by all!