For her birthday, Allie asked for an animal cake that was frosting instead of fondant. While my kids like the look of fondant, I haven't found a recipe yet that they like to eat, and she really wanted to eat her cake and enjoy it.
And so, mostly due to that, as well as the fact that life is busy right now, I went a little more basic on this cake than normal...while still making sure it was worthy of my 11 year old.
The cake itself is just a large, flat sheet of cake. The top of the cake is frosting, with brown sugar used for the sand. While the ducks are plastic toys, the dog is made of fondant (had to sneak a little in there!), and the doghouse is a small gingerbread house decorated with frosting and hershey's chocolate bars. The fence pieces are also made of gingerbread, which proved to be super easy to make fences and houses out of. A few sprinkles and chocolate rocks and Ta Da!
While it turned out very cute (I wouldn't put it in the category of a masterpiece), and Allie was actually extremely happy with it. Wins all around, I guess.
