Books, Books, Books!

 

This was my first attempt at making a multi-tier book cake.  There were definitely some ups and downs and things I learned not to do on my next book cake.  All in all, I think it turned out pretty fantastically.  There was a lot of math and measuring involved which is where my wonderful husband helps me out.  First for the book covers, you measure the length, width, and height(after its been iced!). Then add 1/4" to the width and 1/2" to the length.  You want the covers to hang over the cake to make the edges of the book.  For the bottom edges of the books it's just 3 - 1/4" strips of fondant.  For the pages I needed to measure the height of the gap and then roll out a thin strip of white fondant long enough to go around the book.  Before putting the white fondant on the cake I made sure to make the lines for the pages...it's much harder once it's on the cake. You'll notice the pages on the bottom book aren't very defined, I tried to do it while on the cake...that's where I learned my lesson ;)  Each book is of course a different tier of cake separated by cardboard cake squares and dowels so they don't sink into each other.  And there you have it, my first book cake!