Isaac's birthday preparations, part 2 - the cake

Time to make the cake! This design was very simple to piece together.  Notice the huge gouge out of the right sleeve. Whoever gets that piece will be enjoying a mouth full of frosting!

Crumb coating is never pretty but it sure does save time and relives frustration in the long run. To crumb coat, I simply thinned out some buttercream with a little milk and spread it over the entire cake.

2 things about this photo: I've seen examples online of this cake using fondant, but I have not used fondant enough to be comfortable using it for big cakes.  So, I used buttercream. The second thing is that I learned a very easy trick to smoothing out the buttercream while doing this cake.  It made all the difference in the world and I was sorry I didn't know this trick right at the beginning.  I smoothed the buttercream on, then dropped my knife in a glass of hot water. Now here is the trick...normally I wipe the knife dry and and smooth the frosting, BUT, last night I learned if you simply leave the knife a little wet, the water works with the buttercream to erase lines and smooth everything really nicely. All this time, I thought it was the heat that smoothed the icing!  haha!!  I cannot WAIT for my next buttercream cake!!

In Isaac's class, they reward the students with victory stars of all colors..  I cheated and only put blue on the cake.  I really need to invest in more couplers and icing bags so that I can do a variety of colors at once.  I did however find (much to my delight) that you can buy a package of couplers for cheap.  And I put them to good use last night!

To add the black lining, I first took a toothpick and dragged it through the icing to guide exactly where to put the stripes. I also traced the outline for the karate kids "patch" the same way before piping it.  And with my new smoothing technique, I was able to "erase" lines and try again.  I'm telling you, a whole new world has opened up to me and I can't wait to do more!

Last but certainly NOT least is the fondant belt.  I love using fondant because you can color it, shape it, layer it, etc. Here I just took a big portion of store bought fondant. (I want to learn how to make my own but I have heard it's tricky.) I colored it blue with wilton icing coloring stuff.  I do believe my fingernails will be stained blue for quite some time.  lol  I then rolled it into a long strip, cut it in half and "tied" it on the cake.  And Voila! The cake is done.  I can't wait to see Isaac's reaction to it!  Oh, and I did a blue belt because that is the rank that Isaac is right now.  :)