Evan's Safari Cake

by H.J.
(Springfield, KY)

My daughter-in-law came to me with a picture she found on the internet of a cake she wanted,(I don't know who to thank for the idea) and we started from there, changing the animals to match those on the party supplies she had bought.
The bottom cake is a two-layer 10-inch chocolate cake, and the top cake is a two-layer 8-inch sour cream white cake. The cakes were filled and frosted with buttercream.

The work on the fondant animals started several days before the cake was assembled. The purple elephant, lavender hippo, giraffe, and tiger were formed around plastic column supports. Painting of features was done with paste color and vodka, or edible markers.

The monkey on top was just molded from a large ball of fondant, with no other internal support.
I also made cupcakes decorated with miniatures of the animals' heads, also made from fondant.