This is probably in my opinion, one of the most cutest and out of the ordinary cakes that I've made. Julie requested a cake from me some time earlier, and had the idea of having a "3D Dora the Explorer cake" for her boyfriend's daughter Ava. Ava was turning four, and she loves Dora! I was very excited and while making her cake, I did some research and came across a picture of Dora flying in a yellow air balloon and thought "how cute would it be to surprise her with a cake out of the ordinary?"
Julie didn't have a preference as to what flavor the cake should be but insisted that it be a flavor that kids will love since it will be for a party of 20 kids. Immediately, I remembered my "Thing 1 Thing 2" Dr. Seuss cake and remembered that Ann gave me wonderful feed backs on the Strawberry cake with cream cheese butter cream.
Since it is an air balloon scene of Dora, I wanted the cake to look like she's gliding in the sky therefore I made green mountains on the side of the cake, and on the top I made some clouds with a banner that said "Happy Birthday Ava". On the balloon itself I originally wanted to write "Dora the Explorer" but instead I wanted to give it a more personal touch and wrote Ava's name instead. =) Dora's trusted monkey friend "Boots" is also on the cake and he is gliding in the air with his own pink balloon. Dora was hand-molded with gum paste and so was Boots.
When Julie and her boyfriend Kiet (I hope I spelled his name right) came to pick up the cake and absolutely loved the design. Later that same day, Julie said via text message, that Ava wouldn't let anyone cut in to the cake no matter how many times they tried haha... how cuteeee. =) Hmmm, I wonder if the cake was eventually served haha.
