Music and Spring Flowers 80th Birthday cake

This was for a special man's 80th birthday. My design notes were, music, spring flowers, square cakes and buttercream icing. For some reason I had a tough time coming up with a design to integrate the elements. (Thanks to my friends at CakeCentral.com for breaking the log-jam in my head!) I had considered one tier with flowers and the next tier with music on it, but it didn't seem to integrate well, and I was worried about keeping it a masculine cake. For reference, here is the sketch that I did for the cake. How'd I do?




I am not super at getting that perfect smooth buttercream. I used to use a crusting (shortening based) buttercream that I got pretty good at getting smooth. Then I decided to switch to a meringue buttercream, because it tastes so awesome and my friends LOVE it. I have yet to master it, though.



The music is a strip of fondant loosely wrapped around the cake. I did this after the cake was stacked so that it could sit on the previous layer and act as a border. Then I painted on the music. I did a google search on sheet music and found a website with free piano sheet music. I was looking for something that wasn't too simple but not crazy like 'Flight of the Bumblebee.' I ended up using 'The Entertainer' which used to be a favorite of mine.





I loved the gumpaste tulips and daffodils. It was the first time I made these kind of flowers and I want an excuse to make more! (They were from my Wilton Gumpaste Flower making kit, if you'd like to know.)