I think there is something about the fair that starts to get me excited for the fall. It's always at the end of September and it still is hot here, but it makes me feel like fall is just around the corner. It is always a fun way to celebrate the change in seasons and eat great food you can only find at the fair! Like I have done for the last several years, I entered a cake into the decorated cake category. This year I needed to keep the design simple, but beautiful because of baby boy coming in a few months. So I decided to go back to doing a buttercream cake instead of another fondant cake and like past buttercream cakes, I decided to be inspired by a work of art. In the past, I have done a few Vincent van Gogh Starry Night cakes and like how his painting translated into buttercream frosting on cakes and decided to do one of his Sunflower painting. However, this year I wanted to do a different shape cake and when with a half dome and regular round Styrofoam. The dome was covered in light blue frosting and bottom was frosted in a light yellow/tan and cream to create the vase. I piped a base for the sunflowers to create depth and piped on the stems. For the sunflower petals, I used yellow and copper food coloring and a leaf piping tip and slowly went around on each base until a flower was formed. Once all of the flowers petals were finished, I used a grass tip and pipped on the center of the flowers. I repeated using the leaf piping tip to create the leaves and finished the cake off with Vincent's signature in black buttercream frosting. The cake turned out really cool and I really like the 3-D look the sunflowers have. I can't wait to see how I do this year in the contest!
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Update: I got first place!!
