Okay, I’m almost up to date with my cakes from the past 12 months. Actually, I just realised I made this cake late in 2011, but not to worry!

Now this cake was my first ever attempt at a tiered cake. So what did I do but decide on four tiers! Nothing quite like jumping in at the deep end. It was also my first ever attempt at covering a cake with fondant.

It was for Hubs’ 40th birthday party. He’s right into sailing, so I envisioned a little man in a boat on the top, but I wasn’t confident enough to tackle fondant figures yet.  I tried to bring out a watery theme though by using blues, circles for bubbles, and the waves of blue around the bottom.

Actually those blue waves weren’t planned. They were more of a fix-up job. I thought I’d done the right thing by using dowels in each of the lower levels, but obviously I hadn’t done it quite right, because once I’d assembled the cake, it ever so slowly started to lean, making cracks  and ripples in the fondant. I had to put the cake next to the wall so it had something to lean on! I should have left the assembly until right before the party, but I was going to be out the whole day, so had to get it done the day before. We all got a good laugh at my really really topsy turvy cake. We dubbed it the Drunken Sailor cake. Hmm!

I had fun making this cake, and I’m sure I’ll try another topsy turvy cake in the future – maybe not with so many tiers next time though!