Playing the Fool for New Years!

I had a good time making the New Year's cake this week.  It was pretty straightforward as far as design goes.  I got the idea from Ace of Cakes Chef Duff-

Then I just kind of thought, how do I make this into a New Year's cake?  Well, diamonds are much more flashy and fun than squares set on their points.  So I'll do diamonds.
Figuring out the colors was strange for me, since the red has fizzled in my video card and I haven't gotten it replaced yet.  I asked my hubster what he thought, and of course he said blue (you'd have to know him).  Then he said blue and yellow.  Between the two of us, we got to yellow background, blue diamonds, and white dots.  I was at a loss as to what to do with the top, so I just let it ride for a while.  The cake is this luscious mocha chocolate cake...YUM!  Another recipe from Zaar.  And the filling is CARAMEL!  Let me say this again, so you don't miss it, CARAMEL!  I am so excited at this point!  Actually, this is the same cake and filling that I have at the top of my blog, the cake with "Alice" written on it.  That's some good eats!  Speaking of Good Eats, I totally heart Alton Brown.  So anyway.  Made two 10" rounds, and two 8" rounds, made the caramel filling, made the buttercream, made and dyed the fondant.  So far so good.  I knew I had some gumpaste left over for the numbers or letters, so no worries there.  Time to decorate!
I put the 10" layers together with the caramel, then crumb coated with buttercream.  Rolled out the yellow fondant (I used golden yellow instead of lemon yellow) to less than 1/4" and laid it on.  Smoothed out the top, pressed the sides, and trimmed.  One layer covered.  I like to get my cakes covered with buttercream and fondant to keep them fresh as soon as possible.  Then I had a command decision to make, and I made it.  Blue fondant covering the top tier.  Then I set the top tier gently on top of the bottom tier.  It's really important to note here that the first time I did a layer fondant cake, I covered the bottom tier, put on the top tier cakes uncoverd, THEN tried covering that with fondant.  Big mistake, and not something I'm apt to ever do again!
The motley was a pain at first, since I started out by cutting a strip of fondant 3/4" wide, then cutting on a diagonal EACH PIECE separately.  Soon I noted the folly of my ways and went into mass production.  I cut a bunch of strips 3/4" wide, squared it, then took a measurement from the bottom right corner to the left side of one strip that measured 1", so that one diamond had a 1" side, and cut it.  Then I measured 1" intervals all the way up.  Then I put the ruler down on the correct angle and marked where the line would be at the left side of the sheet of fondant, and the rest is ruler history.  I don't know if that made sense, but it felt good to write down!
I attached the diamonds with a small brushing of water on the backs.  After I did the bottom tier, I felt it looked so nice, I should just keep going with it.  So I rolled out the blue fondant and repeated.
Let me stop here to talk about something I learned about Crisco.  It steals red.

I couldn't figure out why the heck my black kept turning green when I did the Lego cake, and now I know.  When I rolled out the gumpaste for the numbers, I rolled them on a slightly greased surface.  I wanted the colors to be swirly purple, so I made that happen.  Rolled out the gumpaste and cut the numbers, and let it dry for a bit.  When I lifted it, I saw the underside had gone completely blue, and not even swirly.  So now I know, and you do too, that if you want your sugar art to keep its color, keep it away from Crisco!  I don't know the science of it, and to be honest, I'm not sure I want to.  It's weird.

I got in touch with the client after I started, and she informed me she wanted purple in the cake if at all possible (her decorations were all purple).  No biggie, since I hadn't done the white, I just did what would have been done in white in purple.  Then did the 2010 in purple too.  I stuck them in the cake, outlined them in yellow, and here's the finale!   ...Remember, I can't see red, so I'm hoping this picture is a good 'un!