Lopsided Cupcake Cake

I made my eighth cake this week. Be warned: this is a long post. My friend Grace was planning a "Mad Hatter Tea Party" themed birthday for her daughter. She had seen this cupcake pan in the store, but she wanted it to be lopsided to fit with the craziness of the theme. She also loves fondant, but we both thought covering the whole thing in fondant wouldn't look right so the bottom is in fondant and the top is iced with buttercream.

So first (Monday night) I baked the cupcake cake and 2 9-inch cakes in red velvet. I didn't need 9-inch cakes, but that was the size pan I had available. I tried to go get some more, but the Exchange only had 9s and 10s. After I took them out and they cooled a bit, I wrapped them well and put them in the freezer.

Tuesday, I took them out of the freezer and started cutting away. First I made sure all my cakes were flat. Then I placed one of the 9-inch cakes on top of the lower portion of the cupcake. I angled to top and cut a flat circle out of the middle to support the top of the cake. I also cut channels in the sides to match the cupcake.

These are the two separate pieces.

I thought that was quite a bit of cake on the bottom so I cut the lower piece in half and "glued" it back together with some white buttercream.

Then I wrapped up the bottom of the cupcake and put it in the fridge.

I took the top of the cupcake and the other 9-inch cake out of the freezer. I cut the bottom of the 9-inch to fit on top of the other 9-inch cake. That way the top of the cake would be supported and would actually be flat on bottom even if it looked lopsided. I cut the top flat and cut the sides at an angle to line up with the top of the cupcake piece and to overhang the other 9-inch.  I then "glued" the top 9-inch to the cupcake top, wrapped them up, and put them back in the freezer. I took the bottom of the cupcake out of the fridge, added the lower 9-inch to it (with icing) and then re-wrapped it and put it back in the freezer.

Wednesday I made some white buttercream and frosted the entire bottom portion of the cake to prep it for the fondant.

I had intended to smooth the fondant into the indentions to keep the cake looking like it was a cupcake in a paper liner. That didn't work. Since it's a Mad Hatter theme, I decided to paint the fondant. I forgot to take a picture of the cake before I started painting so this picture has two stripes on it already.

I wanted it to show the brushstrokes and have vivid colors to be reminiscent of the Disney movie. I chose green and yellow, as he has a yellow coat and green shoes, pants, and hat. I decided to do stripes to help it look like a paper liner. Here it is completely painted.

I'm afraid it looks a bit weird. I hope it looks better when it's all put together. Well...I don't know how likely that is. It's going to have bright pink icing on top and blue "sprinkles." I just hope Grace and Celeste like it.

Thursday morning I put the top of the cake on, frosted it bright pink, and put on the sprinkles. They're just white chocolate and blue food coloring poured onto a sheet and then cut out with a circle cutter.

Here's the finished product: one Mad Hatter lopsided cupcake cake.