Happy Un-Birthday to Aquarius!

This cake, while quite small, is just TOO CUTE!  I found it on SugarMamaTreats.com and had to try out a version of it.

It's a 2 layer, 6" Decadent Chocolate cake with vanilla butercream filling and frosting with fondant and gumpaste decor.  The "water" is fondant, and the Aquarius symbol and jar are gumpaste.  I started this cake by making the gumpaste structure first.  I freehand drew what I wanted and cut it out, let it dry, then painted it using color gel and vodka.  I use vodka instead of water because it both leaves a cleaner line, and dries quickly and completely.

Using water on gumpaste sometimes causes collapse.  Anyhow.  I achieved the shimmery gold effect by dry painting shimmer dust onto the places I wanted it and let it dry thoroughly again.  Then I baked the cakes, filled, stacked, and frosted.  I used the paper towel technique I posted about on the cake, then let it set in the fridge until it was hard.  The fondant I split into three sections and colored each one differently for the multi-colored effect.  My husband and I watched True Blood (HBO series) while I painstakingly made little snakes of fondant and curled them around upon themselves to set on the cake and the board.  I used fondant for the lettering as well.  This cake is a birthday cake for someone whose birthday it ISN'T, so it was just a super fun cake to let myself experiment with.