This was the cake I made for my own baby shower. As you can see, it was a duck themed shower. The instructions came from Wilton's book on Tier Cakes.

To make this cake, you will need...

12 inch round cake

Wilton duck pan

14 inch silver cake board

10 inch plastic cake board with little peg legs

Wilton ball cake pillars

large star tip

tip #3 or 5

duck cookie cutters

duck candy mold

yellow candy melts

yellow, dark blue, light blue, orange and white buttercream icing

light green and yellow fondant or gumpaste

blue fondant

A few days in advance, make the ducks by rolling out yellow fondant or gumpaste and cutting them out with the duck cookie cutters.

**Decorator's Tip** Gumpaste dries much faster so if you are short on time I recommend using it but keep in mind that you will need to work quickly. You color gumpaste the same way you would color fondant.

You will also need to make the candy ducks a few days in advance. Simply fill the duck molds with melted yellow chocolate and let set in the refrigerator.

Finally, if desired, you will need to make the umbrella. To do this, cut a large circle out of the light green gumpaste. Using a small circle cookie cutter, cut small semi circles all around the circle to make the arched parts of the umbrella. Place the umbrella in the bottom of a bowl so that it will dried curved. To make the stick, take a lollipop stick and place a small ball of green gumpaste at one end. Dab a little bit of water on the ball of gumpaste and place it in the center of the drying umbrella.

Level, tort and fill your round cake. Place the cake in the center of the silver cake board and cover with light blue buttercream icing.

Fill half of a piping bag (the vertical half of the bag) with light blue buttercream icing and half of the bag with dark blue buttercream icing. If you filled the bag correctly, the two colors will be sitting side by side in the bag...not one on top of the other.

With your large star tip, pipe the boarder around the cake. Set the piping bag aside because you will need it again for the boarder around the duck cake.

Place the fondant and candy ducks around the sides of the round cake.

Following the directions in the box, place the ball tier stand on the cake.

**Decorator's tip** Place your plastic cake board in the center of the round cake. The little feet on the board will mark where the pillars need to go. Next, measure the size of each pillar by sticking it into the cake and placing the ball on top. Mark the place where the top of the ball meets the pillar and cut to size.

Cover the plastic cake board with blue fondant. To do this, follow the same steps you would to cover a cake.

**Decorator's Tip** My cake has a marble effect to the fondant. To accomplish this, you tint white fondant blue but do not knead the color all the way into the fondant. This will leave a marble effect on the fondant.

Place the duck cake on the fondant covered cake board. Ice the cake with yellow buttercream icing but be careful not to get to much icing on the cake board. The cake pan will come with directions on the different ways you can ice this cake.

Step 8

Add the eyes using white and blue buttercream icing and a round tip (#3 or 5 will work best). Also, pipe a boarder around the duck using your previously made piping bag and star tip.

Place the duck cake on the ball pillars. Add the green umbrella.

**Decorator's Tip** When transporting this cake, it is best to keep it in 2 parts and place the duck cake on at the party.

My first recipe is for buttercream icing. I learned to make this during my Wilton cake decorating classes. It is a little sweet but is the best icing you can use for decorating cake because it is very easy to work with.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Crisco or any white vegetable shortening
1 tsp. of flavoring (vanilla, almond, butter, etc.)
2 tbls. milk or water (I always use water)
1 lb. or 4 cups of confectioners' sugar
1 tbls. of Wilton Meringue Powder
A pinch of salt (optional-cuts down on the sweetness)





Directions:

Cream shortening, flavoring and water (or milk). Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy

*Decorator's Tip* Add the confectioners' sugar a cup at a time or your whole kitchen will be white.

This will give you a stiff consistency icing. It is great for making flowers with upright petals like roses (post on how to make buttercream roses to follow).

Medium consistency icing is used to create stems, figure piping, borders and flowers with petal that lie flat. Add 1 tsp. of water to each cup of stiff consistency icing. Mix well until blended.

Thin Consistency is used or writing, making stems leaves, and icing a cake. Add two tsp. of water for each cup of stiff consistency icing (2 tbls. of additional liquid for the full recipe). Mix until well blended.

This is a great cake. It is hard to see in the picture but the top of the cake is covered in edible glitter to make the white parts of the cake look like glass.

You will need:

1 cake board

parchment paper

disposable or reusable piping bags

tip #'s 2, 3, and 5

1/2 a sheet cake

White buttercream icing

1 tube of Wilton black icing

1 tube of Wilton red icing

Edible glitter

Piping gel

pink paste coloring

green fondant