American Baker in Germany

This cake was for my daughter's kindergarten for their St. Martin's Market. Every year in early November they have a bake sale. So, it gives me an opportunity to make a cake. This time, I wanted to make a Fall-themed cake. I asked a friend what flavor I should make. What flavor do her kids like the best? Strawberry. So, I made strawberry cake and had a good amount of leftover strawberry buttercream that I used up for this cake. I started out two days beforehand and used some fall colors: yellow, orange, red and brown to marble some Fall colors and cut out some Fall leaves.  I laid them over a piece of crumbled up foil to dry in a more natural shape. Then I filled my cake with strawberry buttercream and frosted it with it as well.  While the frosting was cooling in the fridge, I cut out a handful of Fall leaves from brown, red, orange and yellow fondant. Some of them were marbled together. I really loved the variety of colors. So pretty!  Then, starting with

This duck cake is a redo. I learned to make cakes in order to make my daughter's birthday cakes. My daughter's second birthday was then my second real decorated cake ever. It was also my first fondant covered cake and my first carved cake. And it turned out awful. Here it is:  I knew it was a sad-looking cake at the time. But since it was for my 2-year-old who wouldn't really notice, we used it anyway. But recently, my husband's cousin invited us to celebrate her daughter's third birthday with them. And she asked if we could bring a cake. Maybe with a duck on top? Now's my chance to redeem myself, I realized. I immediately agreed. Time to redo the duck cake. She did request a buttercream cake, so this was a little different design. And I decided to make the duck out of rice krispies instead of cake. So, I modeled the duck out of chocolate rice krispies the day before to let it set up. Then I made Swiss meringue buttercream and crumb coated the duck.