I have never been so scared & intimidated to attempt a cake in my life! But I HAD to. It was in my heart, & it just had to come out. No other cake would do. My niece, Haven, is as horse-crazy as I was when I was her age—-11. She recently got a beautiful new Palomino horse named Skye. The notion took hold in my brain that I had to create Skye in sugar for her birthday. I didn’t know how I could do it, but it had to be done. I had never done a full 3-D sculpted cake like this before, but I had always wanted to try.

Skye turned out far better than I even dared hope. I just took deep breaths & remembered that I was doing the cake out of love, & that if I loved the cake enough, it would show. So every time I had a glitch, I just stepped back, took a deep breath, & ‘loved it’ into being. Have you ever been so nervous doing a cake that your heart races like you’re running sprints? Yeah, I had a few of those moments!

Skye is lemon cake with lemon curd buttercream, iced in lemon white chocolate ganache, & covered in (a LOT) of my homemade fondant. The head, upper neck, & legs are rice krispy treats. The rest is all cake. Everything is edible except the structure supporting the head. She is nearly two feet long from nose to tail.

Our family birthday celebration included my birthday as well, since mine is a week after my niece’s. But when you’re (cough) my age, the 11-year-old deserves all the focus! Ironically, the 11-year-old me would have DIED for this cake! I was horse crazy too, & fun fact about me I bet you didn’t know——I was Miss Rodeo Georgia 1988! So doing this cake was like living a childhood dream for me, & making one come true for Haven.