Fall Themed Scarecrow Cake

I made my first detailed cake last year for my son’s 1^st birthday and made a very detailed ocean themed cake in September for his 2^nd birthday (will post this soon). For now, I’ll share a cake I made for my friend’s birthday. Her birthday is in the middle of November and she loves fall, so I decided to make some fondant sunflowers, pumpkins and a scarecrow plus a royal icing fence.

I make my own fondant, using this recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, which a lot of people seem to prefer the taste of compared to store bought fondant. I always plan out my cake design and determine about how much of each color I will need of the fondant, then I mix the colors up using cake paste (USE GLOVES, way easier and less messy) and let them sit for at least a day or two before making the parts for my cake.

I made my life easier and made a boxed pumpkin spice cake in two 9” round pans. For the frosting between layers and on the outside, I colored some store bought cream cheese frosting. 

I used the royal icing mix from Michael’s and mixed brown cake paste into it. I put the royal icing into a piping bag with a basket weave cake tip on it. I piped out fence pieces onto wax paper and let them dry for at least a few days until they are dry. Make sure you make extras as some will surely break.  

I used a sprinkle mix for the little “dirt path” that wrapped around the back of the cake. My scarecrow was a bit too top heavy, but overall he worked out pretty well.

I put the mm fondant sunflowers in mini muffin tins to dry so they had some shape to them. For the black in the sunflowers and the face of the scarecrow, I mixed a little water with black cake paste and painted it on with a fine brush.