D-d-d-d Dora! F-f-f-f-for Kaylin!

I was super excited to do this next cake for my friend Elly.  She and I met at Disney World while we were participating in Disney's College Program "just a few" years ago.  It was really something, because she was one of the first people I met there and there were students from ALL over the WORLD.  But Elly lived in Wisconsin, just a few miles from where I lived.  Excuse me, but I have to say it..."It's a small world, afterall."  

Here's Elly and me on our College Program graduation day.  I think we both graduated with our Ducktorates.  Mine is still hanging in my office.  ;)

Well, Elly's daughter, Kaylin turned three and she was so excited to be having a Dora the Explorer cake.  And I was so excited to make it FOR her!  I've logged a few hours watching Dora the Explorer with my daughter and the show is super cute and educational.  

A day before I started on the cake, Elly posted this picture on Facebook.  Every year she makes cookies for her kids and this was to be the color scheme of the cake for Kaylin.  Aren't these beautiful cookies?  They must have taken FOREVER!!

And here's the cake I made for Kaylin.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  The cake is a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge, Oreo and buttercream filling and frosting.

I found Dora and her playhouse online and couldn't resist!  It was absolutely PERFECT for Kaylin's cake.  

Look at how cute Dora is!  I'm not that great at sculpting things out of fondant - not one of my strengths.  I always admire the work of people who do that really well.  But if I were a kid, I have to be honest - I'd rather have the toy! And this was too cute to pass up.  I found "Dora's friends" at Target and had to include them too.  They were so colorful, and...

...the set included SWIPER!  

I put him at the back of the cake because he tends to be on the naughty side.  Let's pretend that he's trying to steal the number 3, shall we? 

I had a great time decorating this cake.  Lots of fun colors and I used a mixture of gum paste/fondant and buttercream.  The path leading up to Dora's playhouse is made out of brown sugar.

Kaylin, I hope you had a WONDERFUL 3rd birthday!  Thank you so much for including me in your day!