Groovy cake for Michele's bday!

Last Friday, we went to a surprise party for our friend, Michele's 50th birthday!  My friend (and her sister), Holly asked me to make the cake for her party, which I was very excited to tackle!  Holly was doing a 60s theme for her birthday, so I decided to try to make a tie dye cake!  Here is the finished product, and I took pics along the way to document how I made it!

I divided the batter into four bowls to make different colors with food coloring...(you repeat this step for both cake layers)

I poured each color into the center of the pan without spreading it out...

You continue to pour the colors on top of each other...

 Then swirl them together gently with a toothpick...

From Jon's recommendation, I did the colors in the 2nd layer in the exact opposite order so that they would match up when the cake was cut into...it worked great (so glad to have an engineer for a hubby!)

This was an excuse to buy more cake decorating tools :)  A large cake icer tip and bag... worked great to "dirty ice" the cake before adding the fondant!

Icing in the middle...so easy using a bag to fill it! (this was not the above tip...used the largest one I had before buying the icer the next day)

Leveled off the top a little bit...

 Dirty iced...just spread it out a little after this...

This was my first time making homemade fondant...I should say "we" because Jon helped me make it and I couldn't have done it without him!  I used this recipe:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm 

It is extremely sticky and messy...be prepared to have everything sticky 10 feet around you!

We didn't get pictures of the process because...it was too sticky!  But once we got it in the refrigerator, it hardened up a bit so I could work with it the next day.  I made 8 different colors using food coloring gel, and learned it quickly became sticky again while mixing the colors if I didn't continuously add more powdered sugar to the counter and my hands.  Once I got the colors worked in, I let them cool down again in the fridge, then got them out and rolled them into logs.  

 Once they were in logs, I squeezed them together tightly so there was no air pockets....continue to use lots of powdered sugar to keep everything from sticking to the counter...

 Next, you twist all the logs together...it stretched out quite a bit as I was doing this.

 Then, you fold the ends of the twisted log together to the center, then twist again...

 After it's twisted a second time, you form it into a circle and sprinkle more powdered sugar on both sides...

 I needed to roll this out into a 23" circle since the cake was 16" in diameter and 4" tall for each side + 1 in extra.  I quickly learned that was WAY too much since the fondant also stretches as you unroll it (but that was what the directions said, so I knew no different...)

I didn't get any pictures of the rolling out process since i was by myself and it was very hard to work with to keep it from sticking all over itself.  This was the good side of the cake...the other side I had to piece together because the fondant was stuck to itself at the bottom of the rolling pin (even though I had generously put powered sugar all over it as rolling it up!)

I made large yellow flowers out of fondant I had set aside for this purpose...

Then made her name out of fondant and iced a few details...

I hate I didn't get a picture with my own camera of Michele with her cake, but I hope she enjoyed it and knows how much we love her!  Happy Birthday, Michele!!!!