Ladybug cake

Start one day in advance to make the flowers on wire, so they can dry well. To make these, colour your fondant yellow and pink with the colourings and roll out until a thickness of 2-3mm. Cut out the flowers with the flower plunger cutter. Cut the flower wire in half and carefully stick these into the bottom of the flowers. Then cut little circles out of white fodant and attach these to the hearts of the flowers.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (convection oven 160°C).

Prepare 320 grams of FunCakes Mix for Sponge Cake as indicated on the package. Grease half of the ball and the other baking pan with Cake Release Spray. Divide the batter into the two pans. Bake for approx. 35 minutes and let them cool down afterwards on a cooling grid.

Prepare 200 grams of FunCakes Mix for Buttercream as indicated on the package and add mango flavouring to taste.

Cut the cakes twice using a cake leveller and fill both layers with buttercream. Stack the layers and lubricate the outside of the cake with a thin layer of buttercream to fill holes and get rid of any bumps. Put it in the frigde for 30 minutes and apply another layer of cream. Use a side scraper to smooth the edges.

Cover the drum with piping gel and green fondant. Cover the round cake with green fondant too and the ball with red fondant. Knead some black fondant, roll it out and cut out half a circle, in the same shape as the face of the lady bug. Then cut out black and white circles to create the eyes. Cut out some extra black circles for the dots of the lady bug. If you’d like you can make a pink bow. Mix the rest of the green fondant with 1 teaspoon of tylo powder, roll out thinly and cut out rose leafs using the plunger. Let them dry on a creased piece of paper towel. Once the leafs are reasonably dry you powder them along the edges using green powder and a brush.

Make two little lady bugs out of red and black fondant and draw dots on the body with the black edible pen. Create the antennae for the big lady bug by making two strokes of black fondant, bend the tops a bit and stick a cocktail stick into the bottom. Stick the antennae in the large lady bug and place it on top of the green cake (if you use a cake board underneath the lady bug you don’t have to stick dowels into the cake). Decorate it with the pink and yellow flowers, the powdered leafs and one of two small lady bugs. Make a garland of leafs along the lower edge of the cake and place a flower here and there. Write the name of the birthday boy or girl on the cake with the black pen and stick a small lady bug next to it. Finally, stick the flower pics into the cake in which you place the flowers on wire.