Toy Story Take Over - Part 1 - CAKE!!

      This weekend was someone's special day at my house! I can't believe it but Aiden turned 3 on Saturday (oh yea what a way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo). On Friday night Buzz and Woody started their take over at my house. We had a blast and Aiden LOVED all the Toy Story items around the house...I am currently starting at huge Buzz Lightyear balloon! All of our family came plus some really great friends and we just had a great time being our goofy selves. There were a lot of pictures taken (my father-in-law was like the paparazzi) and I haven't gotten my hands on all of them yet -hence the "part 1 - the cake"
      I love making cakes. I am not a professional by any means but I love doing it. I find it relaxing most of the time and love to see the reaction of someone when they see their cake. You should also know that I HATE fondant- I find it gross and fake looking so I always use the oh so yummy buttercream. This is the cake I found on Pinterest that I wanted to make for the party: http://media-cache8.pinterest.com/upload/244812929713622413_ZxNidZFV_f.jpg. So here is my process: Make lots cake! This cake required 2- 12 inch, 2- 9 inch, and 2 - 7 inch. I didn't realize this when we starting making cake on Friday and my mom had to make a 10:30 pm run to Wal-mart (she's the best)
Step 1: I crumb coat the cakes to help everything look a little smoother. Crumb coat is just a thin layer of frosting around everything. Then I put them in the fridge or freeze depending on how much time I have.

Layers 2 and 3 get the crumb coat and go in fridge.

Step 2: Let the decorating begin! 

Top layer is Woody's vest so just a nice coat of buttercream.

To make the cow spots for I heated tootsie rolls in the microwave for about 8 secs and then molded them. To get them nice and flat you can you the back of a metal teaspoon. I then placed them around the top of the cake. 

Woody's shirt was suppose to be done with red icing pen that I found at Joann's but it came out runny so I had to improvise with Twizzlers (this was lik3 30 mins before the party started so no pressure! ) 

Here I am piping the cloud which were really easy to do. A straight line and then 3 circles on the line. 
 I then just pipped around each layer to cover up where each layer meets to make it look pretty!

Here is my birthday boy with his finished cake. I found edible letters at Joann's (using a 50% coup). I recommend using tweezers to apply the letters and taking your time.  Right now this is the best picture I have of the cake.

So there it is. Stay tuned for more Toy Story!