TWO FROGGIES
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I made this cake for the Anika's 2nd birthday on October 29, 2006.  Two little froggies, one for each year !!
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The cake is made from the famous "Chocolate Blackout Cake" recipe by Margaret Braun, which is simply scrumptious.  The icing is a vanilla italian meringue buttercream.  The filling is chocolate italian meringue buttercream.    
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The froggies are made from pound cake with the miniature 3D teddy bear pan and decorated with meringue buttercream using the star tip.  They sit on lily pads made from gumpaste folded over cardboard forms cut into the correct shape. 
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The white, yellow and purple flowers on the sides of the cake are made from royal icing using various star tips.  The little flies with party hats and the party hat on the froggy are also made from royal icing.  
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The pink water lilies and smaller lily pads are made from gumpaste.  I used two sizes of circle cutters, then thinned the edges on foam with a roller ball and pressed them onto a leaf mold to create the veining impression.  They turned out pretty realistic !!!
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The butterflies, bees and dragonflies are iron-on patches hot glued to wire which gives them a springy "flying" effect.
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Special thanks to my friend, Priya for helping to assemble the water lilies and make the larger lily pads and also to Blake for making the gumpaste flower leaves, frog eyes and assembling the springy bugs!!!  
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For once, this cake came out better than I had originally envisioned it to be !!!
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