Carousel Complete

Today began day two of our Carousel cake adventure.  I got up nice and early (read: 10:30 am) to make icing.  It's never ceased to amaze me that this seemingly incompatible pile of ingredients seen here:

Could turn in to a delicious and creamy bowl of icing in a matter minutes:

Tricia stopped by again; we filled the hexagon cakes: 

Then colored the remaining icing a light lavender as to serve as the base color of the cake.  We iced, staked, and stacked the hexagons.

Now comes the fun part: decorating!  We outlined oval "mirrors" on the smaller hexagon with a darker shade of purple, then did a snake border around the bottom.  Here's a pic of Tricia doing some stripey magic on the bottom tier:

The next thing we knew, this cake was really coming together!  We dipped some lollipop sticks in a little melted chocolate (tinted purple, naturally) to use as the poles for our little prancing ponies.  On went the top tent portion, and we were getting more happy-go-lucky by the minute.

All that remained to do was place the ponies and cheerful little flags.  After a few mishaps, we "glued" the ponies on their posts using a little remaining melted chocolate.  Flags were placed, and our creation was complete!

We decided not to add the characters this time (remember, we did this cake entirely fondant- and gumpaste-free).  Although we were able to make the ponies and flags out of royal icing, seated characters would be a touch more difficult (if not nearly impossible).

However, I think we were able to pretty successfully create a nice carousel just by looking at a photo and going off instinct alone.  

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments section.  And if you see a cake you think I should make, post me a link or photo and I'll do my best!

Until next time!

Katie M.