My sister's cheetah cake.

I made a cake for my sister's birthday who I love very much.  She is the best gift my mom has ever given me. Of course, I wanted to make her feel special with one of my cakes.

 I ended up doing a funky design for my special girl.

My Sister's Cheetah Cake

Fondant covered Coconut Pound cake with a pineapple filling.

Hand painted cheetah print.

Fondant cover based to mimic a zebra print.

I was very pleased with the paint job on this cake.  I used gel food coloring mixed with vodka.  When cake decorators hand paint cake, they usually use a gel food coloring mixed with either vodka or lemon extract. I will say that I should have waited a little bit after I applied the fondant to start painting it.  It need to dry out just a bit before adding the moisture of the gel food coloring mix.

The gel food coloring is different that regular food coloring.  It's not the kind of food coloring you would find at supermarkets. It's thicker and richer in color.

These kind of food coloring are found usually found in specialty shops.  What's great about the gel is the pigment; the colors are so much more intense.  So much so that when I am coloring fondant I actually use a toothpick so that I don't get too much of the coloring on.  Here is a picture of the technique...

Courtesy of Examiner.com

Of course it also depends on the amount of fondant you're coloring.


About the bow...

As you may remember, I've discussed making a fondant bow in the past ("sometimes the cake is gift".) The first bow I ever made was for this particular cake. It's is a prime example of what happens when you don't let the loops completely dry before touching it.





Notice the difference in the two bows.  The second bow was pretty much perfect.  It takes a whole lot of  patience and love to make a great bow.

By the way, the cake was a 6 inch round cake.