My niece Avery turns 5 this October. Since she lives so far away and I won’t get to see her on her birthday, I made her an early birthday cake, or a ‘just because’ cake. Her favorite thing in the world (besides her big brother Nate) is puppies. She has a bathing suit with a puppy on it that she would wear all day every day if she could. I recently saw a picture of a bathing suit cake on the MyCakeSchool.com blog by Melissa that I thought couldn’t be more perfect for little Avery! So I made it (in an 8×8 square rather than the 9×13 in the tutorial) and she LOVED it! It wasn’t the easiest to make, as we’ve had the hottest summer on record here in Michigan and I had to re-do the buttercream twice on top of having 3 cakes to do in two days with an ancient wooden rolling pin malfunction, but the result was pretty good. It was my first time doing ruffles! They weren’t perfect but I know what to do different next time: roll the fondant a little thinner with a new rolling pin! It’s chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and filling and fondant decorations. TFL!