The first Fondant cake that Liz made was sort of for practice. The main reason she did a trial run was for this weekend, for a cake she was making for Father's Day for Bob.

All through the weekend, she was busy mixing and baking and doing a ton of prep. This time around, instead of using the store-bought Fondant... she decided to make her own. She created a marshmallow Fondant that was pretty darn fantastic (and tasted TONS better than the store-bought stuff).

On walking in to the kitchen, it's evident that Liz has been hard at work.

A layer of frosting, on the base piece. I think this is called the "crumb layer," to prevent crumbs from showing up as indentations/bumps later on.

Multiple layers in the fridge. Between you and me, this is the kind of refrigerator I've always wished for. Who needs vegetables, really? And besides, cake is a... a kind of vegetable, right?

Liz ended up with extra batter, and so we had enough for an extra cake ourselves. The one she was making for Father's Day was a tiered cake, and required three levels.

Liz, smoothing out the Fondant on the base layer.

The base layer, all smooth and sleek...

Applying Fondant to the topmost layer.

As decoration, Liz created a ton of buttons. Using a circular cutout, and a few real buttons to get the look right... these are all made of Fondant, and all edible.

Fast forward to the next day. All the cakes are out, and being prepped for transport. Only one layer (with a cream cheese frosting) needed to be stored in the fridge, overnight.

In Frankfort, Liz set up shop in her mother's pantry. Away from everyone else, she worked in secret to build out the cake.

More buttons were needed, as she quickly went through the batch she brought with.

Two layers down!

More buttons needed again.

The final three layers, assembled!

Closeup shot of the cake.

Liz, holding her breath. What you didn't see earlier was that the top two tiers were placed on small circles of cardboard. This was done mostly as a support thing, but it turned out to be way too noticeable. So Liz had to go and lift up each tier, and pull out the cardboard underneath.

For a good three minutes, things were a little tense. But in the end the cake was re-situated, without any major damage.

Served up with a bit of champagne, Julie, Bob and Cameron check out all the frosting and buttons.

Did I happen to mention the cake was a lemon poppy-seed, inside? And Liz's grandmother's recipe, to boot.

Not only was the cake delicious, the fondant was delicious as well. With the first cake, I ended up peeling off a lot of the fondant (the store stuff is sweet, but just not that terribly pleasant to eat). The marshmallow version was much more like actual frosting, and was worlds better IMO.

We had a good afternoon, hanging out with everyone at Liz's parents' house. Ribs, salad, corn on the cob... and a fantastic cake adorned with buttons. A wonderful (and very full) Father's Day in Frankfort.