Mad Hatter Tea Party birthday cake

When my cousin told me she wanted to throw a mad hatter tea party for her twins first birthday I was SO excited about it! I haven’t done a topsy turvy cake in a while and mad hatter just SCREAMS topsy turvy! She sent me this pin for color and ideas.

I hand carved each tier, air brushed the color and then hand painted the gold. I used fondant around covered wire for the handles and spout, which I made the day before so they could dry. I made a fondant pocket watch and LEFT IT AT HOME! My heart still aches that that didn’t make it on the cake!

The tea cup was hard simply because of the size, the tiny tiers are always tough because they are so small they don’t weigh much and tend to easily get pushed around.

Carving the teapot was of course the most consuming, I started with a ball for the bottom, and then carved the top. I used ganache to “glue” the layers together and hold the carving in place.

To get some fabric soft look to the hat I used buttercream under the fondant instead of ganache. The only thing I’d change about this tier would be to add another cardboard circle in the middle of the hat to help with the weight distribution. The weight of the super height of this tier lead to some tipping issues.