blocks/checkboard cake

I was helping my friend make her son's 1st bday cake..was so excited that I thought I should write about it.

herez my thought on making it----

- a sponge cake will be good..its enuf fluffly for a little kid or a moist chocolate cake will be yummy too.

- make a large 9x13 cake, cut blocks out of them. If you want thicker blocks, make multiple layers of the cake

- make butter cream with different colors for each block..light pink, yellow, blue, green..

- decorate the blocks with white bead border... tip#5 or a bigger tip based on liking(bigger or smaller dots)

- buy rolled fondant..its much easier to make fondant and for vegetarians..the best option is to use Wiltons rolled fondant, that way you can stay away from gelatin. Roll it out and cut out alphabets and stick them to the blocks...the buttercream icing itself acts like glue. So, if u press the alphabets against the iced blocks...that will keep them intact.

- make the alphabets or anything with fondant 1 week in advance so that it gets enough time to dry...start working on the cake 3 days in advance. that will be good enough.

- If you have a lot of time you can make animals as well from cut outs or can just decorate around the cake with the kids' toys.