Dad's Birthday Cake

In addition to making my card of the day, I made my dad a birthday cake as well.  The cake took a few hours to decorate, because of a heatwave in the area (and central air that couldn't keep up) the frosting was melting as I applied it to the cake.  My dad is big into hunting and fishing (as you've seen if you've seen previously blog postings) so I decided a duck was the perfect design for the cake.  Once the cake was frosted (for the second time) I used blue color mist provided by my mother and sprayed the cake to give it the frosting an appearance of water.  After that, I found an image on the internet and printed it out in order to create a design for the duck.  Once printing was complete, I traced it onto wax paper using a black sharpie marker.  After that was done, I flipped over the wax paper and traced it again only this time I used black piping gel instead of a Sharpie.  I chose black to make sure that it stood out and was most visible on the cake.  When the final design is filled in, the piping gel will be covered upon completion.  Using the bottom of a pen to press the gel into the cake, I then pulled off the wax paper gently so that it wouldn't take the frosting with it.  After the image was on the cake, I mixed up the different colors of frosting to fill in the many details of the duck on this cake.  I then put the different colors into decorating bags using a star tip I had to put the frosting in the fridge several times since it was melting and not making my stars.  Finishing the duck and cattails, I wrote "Happy Birthday Bob" on the cake using a round tip.  It would have came out nicely if a  decorating bag hadn't slipped and fallen on one of the B's.  Oh well, it happens.  There is no such then as perfect.  All that matters is that my dad loved his cake and enjoyed his time with family and friends! :)