The Fairy that Almost Got Away

I had the wonderful opportunity to dip my toe in the Tinkerbell pool and make this adorable fairy cake for an even more adorable little girl's 5th birthday party.  Her favorite fairy from the Disney collection is Silvermist the water fairy. Silvermist's favorite hangout is by a babbling brook and she likes water lilies and to teach tadpoles to blow bubbles. Sounds like a fun party girl, indeed! 

This cake is a 6" over 8" dark chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream between the layers. It was finished in a coat of dark chocolate ganache then fondant. Silvermist is hand sculpted from fondant and gumpaste, then handpainted.  Her face is made from a gumpaste mold of an actual Silvermist doll, giving her the unique facial characteristics of the fairy (even though her body is a softer, rounder version of the original). She sits admits water lilies on lily pads and next to a cascading stream. The water is done with vertical strips of thinly rolled and ruffled fondant which was then painted with blue luster dust. The only non-edible part of the cake are the fairy wings, borrowed from the doll used to model for the face. 

(please don't say it...the photo is junk!  In the rush to get to this late morning party, I missed taking a photo with my Nikon D40 and then I forgot the camera at home.  This is an iphone photo that my husband has photoshopped to drop out the backlit background. I usually don't like to show heavily photoshopped cakes on my blog because I don't want to hide my abilities behind on-screen editing, but this was the only way to showcase this cake, which just like a fairy nearly disappeared without a record to show for it)