The Crib Cake

Sometime last year I saw a post by a friend of a Crib cake made by his wife Manju. I was so fascinated by it and ever since have been wanting to make one. Though no experience at decorating cakes, it was just too cute to resist. With no opportunity, I would have made one for my own baby shower had it not been a surprise but finally the opportunity presented itself for a friend's.

Ingredients

Pineapple cake
16 oz crushed pineapple
Vanilla buttercream frosting
2 tbsp milk
Marshmallow fondant
Powdered sugar
Cake board
1 pack vanilla Candy melts
McCormick colors

The Cake
I baked 2 8x8x2 inch pineapple cakes and then trimmed them down to 7x5x2 inch once cooled. 
I wrapped a 9x7 white cake board with aluminium foil. Kept 2 extra inches on all sides.

I thinned out some of the frosting by adding milk so it was easy to crumb coat the cake.
I centered one cake on the board and put a layer of the thick vanilla buttercream frosting. I topped it with a layer of crushed pineapple.
I placed the other cake on top and covered it completely with the thin frosting (crumb coat
). 
One dry I covered with the thick frosting
I am not good at smoothing it out well but did not matter as it was going to be covered with fondant.

Then I put the cake in the refrigerator overnight so that the frosting set.

Decoration
I made 3 parts of the white fondant and colored 2 light and dark blue

Bed covers
I made measured out the cake and made a sheet of light blue fondant to go around the cake in the center andattached it using water


Then I rolled out the crib sheet of required size and placed it on top of the cake. 
Using my metallic ruler I made the criss-cross indention to give it the comforter look.
I made a number of small balls from the light blue fondant and stuck them on the comforter using water
I rolled out a thin strip in white and placed it at the head of the cake to expose the bed
Another thin strip of light blue went on top to indicate the cover has been folded out.

Bed Skirt
I rolled out a thin strip in dark blue and a thin strip in light blue.
From the light blue I cut out small diamond shapes and stuck them onto the dark blue strip.
I stuck the 'crinkled' dark blue strip around the cake at the bottom
Do not spread the skirt too much on the ground like I have since it will be difficult to attach the railings.

Railings
I melted candy melts at half power in the microwave for 30 secs at a time till a paste was ready
I drew the crib railings on a paper and topped it with wax paper.
I filled out the decorating bags and filled out the shape on the wax paper.

To give the railings more strength, did another layer on top once the first had hardened.
Then I stuck the headboard onto the cake with water/ candy melt and also the opposite railing
Finally I held the side railing and piped it in place with more Candy melt.
The Spread out skirt posed a problem and the railings had to be attached a bit tilted hence wouldnot meet at the edges. I worked around it by piping them together with more candy melts.

Finishing touches
Finally I added a sheet & pillow made out of fondant to complete the look

The Crib Cake