Painted Turtle Cake

This cake was made for a friend who loves turtles and bright colors. I had previously made the Spring Frog Cake for her and I wanted to continue that theme. To make this cake a little different I decided to use a square shape. I used yellow cake and put a strawberry filling between layers.

Instead of using buttercream frosting I used a non-dairy whipped frosting I purchased from a local grocery store. I wanted to give the cake a lighter texture. I used a marshmallow fondant recipe and tinted portions of it purple, pink, and yellow.

After covering each layer and stacking them I decided to try something new. I mixed a litte pit of paste food coloring and water to make edible paint. (After doing this I discovered that using an extract such as lemon instead of water makes a better base.)

Painting the cake was a lot of fun, and it went a lot faster than I thought it would. You have to have a lot of patience for this though, you can’t go back and fix any large mistakes.

I made the turtles out of some left over fondant I had set aside. This is one of the reasons I like marshmallow fondant so much, its very easy to sculpt.

Overall I was pleased with this cake, but I would have liked to add an extra something to it to really bring it over the top. I could have decorated with frosting balloons or added decorative wire with flowers attached.