LADY BUG CAKE

  First I made this sweet lady bug and set aside, and added the eyes and ribbon later. I made the flowers ahead of time, too.

I made two layers of different sized daisies and gum glued them together and let dry in an egg carton.

I covered the cake board and added the ribbon. I covered the bottom cake with red fondant and a black fondant bow. I had made the bow ahead of time to let harden, then added with royal icing.

The lady bug's antennae were curly and one broke when I was ready to box it up so I had no choice but to break off the other one. It still was cute, but it was cuter the other way. Next time I will make doubles in case of breakage.

 I found two red and white candles that I already had and put them into small green fondant circles that I cut out using my tips, let dry, then added to cake board using royal icing. I also cut out her name, "Darcy," ahead of time and let dry...just one less step at the last minute. I "glued" onto the cake board with royal icing.

Using a cutter, I cut out a name plate and let dry completely, then made "happy birthday" using an edible marker and added two tiny lady bugs.

For the top tier I used white fondant then used edible spray paint for a splash of yellow across the top and a little quick spray of green in the middle, with more green at the bottom. Then I glued on the stems, flowers, and leaves using edible glue.

And voila! A sweet little lady bug cake!