Anyone attempting an elaborate birthday cake?

[GlumyGloomer]

I'm a decent baker, I can make cakes that taste nice. Decorating though, I'm a total novice. Somehow though I'm determined to make my kids cakes myself (poor sods, lol), so currently planning a double tier unicorn head cake, with a sprinkle coated base.
Anyone else getting overly ambitious this year?

@TheReigningLorelai

I made this for DS1's birthday because he could ONLY have a Minecraft cake!

Well done Lorelai. That looks fab - it must have been a real labour of love.

Well, I must say you are all making me feel very inadequate with your spectacular cakes, lol.
Sadly I can't easily practice, time is such a premium, and also I should be eating less cake, not more. I am doing 1 practice run for this one though. Chocolate and vanilla sponges for the unicorn head are now in the freezer, so I just need to make the base and then I can try assembling it.
I do plan to make the horn etc in advance too.
@SpeckledlyHen thanks for the tips, I am planning to use fondant so will get a mat and smoother.

This is my best previous effort. Not quite the same scale as this year's attempt...

Very outing - but I like baking & decorating, I do it 3-4 times a year for DCs & DHs birthday's. Depending on the complexity it can be 2-3 days to bake & decorate. I enjoy it but do get stressed & DH has to take the children out whilst I'm doing it.
I hate fondant to eat, so avoid using it on my cakes, preferring buttercream.
This year DS wants a combine harvester/digger/Pokémon cake & DD hasn't decided yet.
Here are a few of my better ones.

@MarshmallowsOnToast that looks great. What food colouring did you use? It looks really vibrant.

I’m a good baker but not when it comes to decoration. My cake maker cancelled a week before my daughters birthday so I decided to make it myself having never used fondant. It cracked in places and I had no idea how much fondant you actually need to cover a cake!

It tasted fab and looked great too (in my opinion!) It’s a Rapunzel (tangled) themed cake.

I'm a hobby baker and I love setting myself more and more challenges. I've made two already this week and two started ready for next week. I hate the mess but love the creating.

Pic 1 made for a friends 50th
Pic 2 made for a friends daughter
Pic 3 attempting to make tomorrow for a special,friend

Hmm won't let me post them 🤷🏼‍♀️

Try again

One at a time? Really?

Last one

@nokidshere that shoe one is amazing! Definitely post the piano when it's done.
Loving all the cakes and still feeling totally out classed, lol. Practice cake will be attempted this week. The Unicorn head sponges are defrosting in the fridge, still have the base layer to bake. Tonight I decided to muck about with some Dr oetka coloured fondant (will use proper sugar paste for the real one but I foolishly only bought one pack). The eyes were tricky as I accidentally bought an embossing tool when I wanted a cutter. The horn was rather floppy, hopefully it'll dry nice and firm in the fridge. The rose tool was bought for last year's cake, but I didn't use it in the end so that was fun to play with. After previously saying I'd use fondant I'm now planning to butter cream the cake. Will post the cake when it's done.

Tonight I stacked the sponges and attempted the crumb coat. Oh my goodness it's fantastically bad! And I ran out of buttercream and was too tired to make any more. Not sure whether to forge on with a new batch of buttercream tomorrow or try to hide the multitude of sins under fondant instead. Advice welcome!
Oh, also the base tier is too thin, will up the quantities next time.

Sort of saved it, although my piping set broke (plastic plunger type, sandwich bags were too thin and split) so the mane is pretty scanty. Also discovered I do not have food dye. It has certainly been a learning experience.
Reminds me of the buggered hedgehog thread, hopefully I too shall triumph in the end 😂

It looks great @GlumyGloomer your child will love it 😁 and practice makes perfect, the next one will be easier.

I completed my piano and although I can see plenty of mistakes it's not too bad!

Here are a few of mine, I only make them for friends and family but I love doing it

I love the decoration. Ita the one bit of 'art's I'm somewhat ok at.
Some years turn out better then others

@GlumyGloomer Your unicorn looks amazing! Well done!

Could anyone who is good at making these types of cakes give advice for how to smooth down the sides of the cake once I have laid down the fondant icing over it? I make my kids cakes and am ok but always seem to end up with a wrinkle in the fondant or its bumpy down the sides of the cake

Thanks chubbachub and nokidshere
The piano looks awesome.
Sad end to my story as dd pronounced the trial cake not good enough and wants a shop one instead. I was gutted to be honest, but at least I won't be icing a cake at 10pm the night before the party. The final insult was that it was apparently not yummy enough, so there's my ego throughly bruised.

I remain in awe of all your excellent cakes. It was immensely hard work even for an imperfect version.

These are all too good!! My DC wants a sheep but I can't do piping so I'm stuck.

Hi, just thought I'd update with the final twist in my cake saga.
I bought a painfully expensive (to me) unicorn cake, which was delivered the day before the party (dad's actual birthday). It looked great, but sadly the toddler came down with norovirus, so we had to cancel the party. The fancy cake was cut I to chunks and frozen. Dd decided that she didn't actually like I all that much, and wanted a cherry and almond cake like I made for Dh for her rescheduled (and much reduced) party. Dd and I also caught noro, and after serving that for a week, then scrubbing the house for the party the week after I managed to start the new cake but couldn't get it finished in time. So in the end dd had an m&s rainbow cake at her party, and a unicorn cake the day after when I finally had time. Will be sticking to supermarket cakes for future parties, at least until the kids are less clingy.

*dd, not dad

OK there's a million typos in that post 😅

That looks great!
My DS actually agreed to a big themed birthday party so I didn't have to make a digger/combine harvester/Pokémon monstrosity!
I made a tree stump covered in bugs instead
Everyone thought it was good but When asked the next day by his Key Worker what cake he'd had he couldn't remember!