Fun in the Sun cake

Meet Shelby.

Shelby & I go way back. In fact, I knew her when she was just a twinkle in her parents' eyes, back when I was making these butterfly cupcakes for her mom's baby shower. Shelby & I are tight.
So how else to celebrate her first birthday but with an adorable Shelby-sized cake? Her party was a big barbecue at a park by the beach, so I made a "Fun in the Sun"-themed cake.
I'd intended the sun to balance on a wire from the top of the cake, but after an hour of transport in a hot car, that just wasn't happening. Plan B, with the sun sitting right on top, ended up working out okay.
My favorite part was making the little bugs to go around the cake. The ladybugs were made of (old) gumpaste and two of them MELTED on the trip over. No joke! Something about the sun through the windshield liquified them. I'm just glad nothing worse happened.
The other bugs were fondant and fortunately they held together fine. I couldn't decide which I liked the best, the snail...
or the bees. The cake was mostly for Shelby to destroy, so I made matching mini cupcakes for the guests. We had chocolate on chocolate...
and strawberry with vanilla buttercream.

And what did the guest of honor think? After tentatively pawing at the cake for a few moments, she figured out the deal and dove in with gusto. A girl after my own heart!