Chicago Cake

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend! I ran 15 miles and my sister, Emily went to Chicago to celebrate her hubby's 40th birthday...which option sounds more fun to you? I was definitely jealous I couldn't spend a few days in Chicago but I will get my chance to visit the windy city in October for the Chicago Marathon so I'm super excited!

So as I promised from the red velvet cone cupcake post I told you I would be back to share pictures with you of the cake my sister made for her husband's 4oth bday. Since she was surprising him with a trip to Chicago it was only fitting to make him a Chicago themed cake right?

So she found a clipart image of the Chicago skyline on the internet, scaled it up and printed it out. After cutting around the buildings she placed the cutout on top of some aqua blue tinted rolled fondant and traced around the shape.

Ta da! The print out and the fondant replica, they look identical to me!

Since I am not much of an artist myself and a lot of the time you can't find a cookie cutter resembling the design shape you need, I love going to the internet to find inspiration and templates to use for cake decorating ideas! Just scale up the graphic you need, carefully cut it out and then trace around it over fondant...super simple and budget friendly!

Using some alphabet fondant cutters, she made a personalized bday message.

Here's the final cake! I love how she chose a chocolate buttercream to be the background for the aqua and lime colors to make them pop off the cake!

Have you ever been surprised with a cake for your birthday?