Ballerina Piggy

First of all, let me start off with a disclaimer. Hubby ended up taking most of the pictures for this post, so I had to do some serious editing. Word of advice: never leave your husband to finish and take pictures of a cake even if you have prepared him to the best of your ability. I will get to the story later.

Anyways, my mother-in-law called me up with a emergency. The little girl that she babysits was having a birthday. Long story short, grandma thought mom was making the cake, and mom thought grandma was making the cake. Can you say fiasco? Luckily, I was ready and willing to make an emergency birthday cake for Miss Sarah.


Before I start on the cake, I have a story to tell. It's funny now, but I was very upset at the time.  First, I had loads of trouble with this cake. The ballerina skirt kept stretching. The pole was going through the head of the ballerina, and the ruffles on my cake kept sliding off. By the time I was done with this cake, I vowed to never do ruffles again. But, let's be honest; I'll probably try one more time (a long long time from now).
Then, I forgot I had to go bridesmaid dress shopping with my little sister. So, I had to leave the almost finished cake with Hubby. I gave him very specific instructions. 1. The pig is already put together, and there are holes already in the cake. All you have to do is put the stick in the center hole and add the extra leg. 2. Take a lot of pictures of the cake with NO clutter in the background.
When I got home, the cake had already been picked up. I looked at the camera, and I maybe 4 pictures, all with clutter. Yeah, he's a good listener. Also, as you can see above, the pig is missing a leg. Oh, and it's head is on backwards. What gets me is the pig's head was already the body when I left. OMG! This is so mortifying to me. Luckily, I was told the extra leg was added after the picture was taken, and no one could tell the head was on backwards except me. Still, he is hear-by banned from cake decorating.   Now to the cake.

I used homemade buttercream icing on stacked 12 inch round cakes. I needed to makings of frosting. First, I base coated it. I did this a couple of hours in advance. I got it as smooth as I could, then I let it crust over. This may take a while, so I like to let it crust overnight. 

After it was crusted, I frosted a second layer. I smoothed the frosting out as much as possible. Since the sides were ruffles, it didn't matter how smooth the sides were. 

To get the ruffles, make sure your icing is thick. This is why I had the sliding problem. You'll need to use a #103 tip. Starting at the bottom, place your tip (large end) facing the cake. Pipe a back and forth motion upwards holding your back almost vertically. Do one column at a time. Trust me, you'll get the hang of it. 
Chill for one hour so the ruffles will set. 
Making the pig was very simple. It's basically just round fondant. The arms were oblong, and the hands were colored with a black edible marker. The eyes were Wilton Candy eyes. If you liked to play with play dough as a kid, fondant pigs are easy!.  I had a problem with my pig wanting to sink. So Hubby made a platform for me. You will never believe that the platform was just a cut-out CD covered in zebra duck tape and superglued to the pole.  I painted skewers in pink and white for the banner poles. I printed Sarah's name on a sheet of paper, and simply cut out the design I wanted. Finally, I used light pink thread to pull it all together.
This photo was sent to me. She loved her cake so much that she made her mom keep the piggy. I hear it's sitting on their kitchen table in a plastic bag. 
Still, I doubt I'll be making anymore piggy cakes in the near future!