I knew from the start that I would do an In the Night Garden cake for my son as it is his favourite show. This was the second time ever working with fondant (my first time was doing his first birthday cake) and I’m pleased with the result, perhaps it’s even better than I anticipated it would turn out.

I bought a masonite cake board which I covered in Bakels Green Pettinice and stuck green ribbon around the edge.

The decorations are all made of gum paste. The daisies were quite easy, I used a daisy cutter and put them in cupcake patty pans to dry to get the shape. I rolled balls of yellow gumpaste and squished them on.

The gazebo I made from scratch. Used paper straws for the pillars, and used two small round cardboard cake boards for the base and top. I kind of bluffed the rest, guessing as I cut the shaped to fit. In the end I had to use superglue as the tylose glue just wasn’t holding anything. I used some shimmer on the top as well. The ribbon around the top of the gazebo wasn’t planned, I had it to wrap my sons present in but decided to use it as I didn’t like the “bareness” of the gazebo before it.

The stepping stones are gumpaste. The letters for the name are fondant on a round gumpaste background.

The border of grass was done using store bought green buttercream and a Wilton #233 tip.

I used Fondtastic Watermelon to cover the cake. It was ok to work with, and tasted nice too.

I used 1kg of Mississippi Mud Cake from my local cake decorating store. Mud cake gives it a nice density that I find is easier to work with as last year I had a sponge and it kept crumbling while working with it. I used chocolate ganache for underneath the fondant. I made the mistake of trying to use buttercream last year and it just didn’t work.

The Night Garden characters are plastic, could you imagine trying to mould the likeness of these intricate characters!

The best part for me was adding the decorations. I really saw my vision come to life! The hardest part was covering the actual cake with the green fondant. I rush too much and can never get a polished clean symmetrical look. The top of the cake was not completely flat and the gazebo is on a bit of a lean.

After I finished the cake I got terrific reactions from my family. They didn’t expect me to do such a great job (neither did I). My son absolutely loved the cake. He enjoyed eating it too!

The only thing that bugged me was that Upsy Daisy kept falling off the top of the cake every time I moved it. Guess it was because of the top wasn’t 100% flat.

Making this cake cost me nearly $100AUD. I didn’t have all of the tools needed so that put me back. But I am very glad with the end result so it was worth it. I’m sure if I had a professional make this cake they would charge a lot more, and I wouldn’t have the satisfaction of saying I made it.