Asher's ONE!

It always seemed far fetch when other parents told me how fast years go by when you have kids.... I'm doubtful that 18 will go by THAT fast but man this first one absolutely flew by!  For such a monumentous occasion I tackled one of my hardest cakes to date.

"Doubie doubie doubie"... Agent P aka Perry the Playtpus!

Right now Phineas and Ferb is certainly Asher's favorite show, and by Asher I mean daddy really likes the show.  Perry is the secret agent Playtpus who brings justice to the world, but poses as a not so advanced pet platypus by day! 
Okay here we go!

I wanted to try to make both Perry's secret agent state and pet platypus state. I googled lots of different images from the show and cakes to get ideas. (You can check out all my 'cake-spriations' on my Pintrest site)   When I make a cake I usually end up with lots of odds and ends pieces. Some small and some whole layers that I trimmed off or didn't need. I decided to raid the freezer and put all this leftover cake to a very noble purpose. 

 I ended up with 3 vanilla layers and 2 chocolate.   The layers all got cut in 1/2 then sprinkled with orange simple syrup. Quick White Buttercream for the frosting, with the chocolate layers also getting a good slathering of a random can of Duncan Hines Coconut Pecan frosting I had.  All said and done there were 10 layers of cake.  Even with 10 layers Perry was still on the short side of  the 10" I wanted.  With the remaining scraps I did some quick 'cake-ball' molding.  A wooden dowl 'backbone' secured Perry upright. I was worried he might topple over, but covering him with fondant  remedied almost all my fears.  Just to be on the safe side I used a container of my sons snack puffs behind Perry to hold him up until his big reveal.

Next came eyes, feet, beak and hands.  With a little trial and error Perry took shape.  For his hands, I skewered blue fondant and cut fingers out with kitchen shears. Once attached a little more blue fondant helped hide the slight amount of skewer showing.

Perry's secret agent hat was the trickest to shape.  My first attempt looked more like a floppy cowboy hat than a sleek detective fedora.  About an hour before party time I attempted another hat, this one I kept.  Though the proportions were a little off it made for a better top.

All put together Perry looked pretty sharp! 

Fresh Coconut and Vanilla/Strawberry Cupcakes went along with Perry.  A few even had pet Perry as a fondant topper.

Not having much expierence with fresh coconut I was pleasantly surpised how tasty it was.  I carmalized some of the coconut chunks in a 400F oven sprinkled with a little sugar for about 10 minutes ( or just before the sugar starts to burn). The carmalized bits worked well with the creamy frosting.

(Coming soon: Fresh Coconut Cupcake recipe)

Although Asher probably won't remember his 1st b'day, I've got the pictures to prove he loved the cake!

Happy Birthday Asher! I can't believe you're already ONE!