Accidental cake

I love to make birthday cakes for my kids but this was the first time a friend kindly let me make a cake for her daughter's birthday.   I have never worked with or made fondant but thought it would be fun to try it out for this cake.  The cake you see above is the result of one failed topsy turvy fondant cake and 4lbs of discarded fondant. 

The only fondant on this cake is the lonely number one on top, generously brushed with pink luster dust (one of my new favorite things).  My adventures with fondant began a few days ago when I bought all the supplies I thought I would need and found several recipes for Marshmallow fondant and proceeded to make 4lbs of fondant.  The fondant came out perfectly and was fun to make.  My kids loved helping and eating and rolling it with me.  However, where I started loosing control was when I tried to cover the cake with it.  The fondant was too thick and too heavy and after covering three tiers (why did I do 3?)  it collapsed.  I was going to take pictures of my disaster but my kids were more than happy to start eating the mess, so with tears in my eyes I let them.  I felt so defeated and frustrated, but still needed a cake for the party, so I decided to stick with what I know, buttercream.  Buttercream has never let me down, it tastes yummy and looks lovely and sweet.   

I baked a new cake and frosted it with my favorite buttercream recipe and lots of dots and swirls.  It came out very cute and tasted wonderful thanks to the new vanilla cake recipe I found at Glorious Treats .  The recipe is for vanilla cupcakes so I just doubled it and it made beautiful vanilla cake that was super moist and delicious.  So the moral of this story is "When life hands you fondant, make buttercream instead".