Sunset 6

After years of gawking at all the awesome designs and cakes in the Threadcakes competition, I decided to join in on the fun! This is my first entry. After I literally picked out DOZENS of designs that I wanted to replicate in sugar, I decided on this amazing melting sunset hand-painted in all buttercream. Yup, just cake and buttercream, no fondant, no handy airbrush (that would have been nice!)
First, I started with a vanilla pound cake and homemade strawberry buttercream. I stacked all the cakes and just used a few dowels for stability. I topped the cake with a bowl shaped cake. As you can see in the pics, I started with an outline of the design that I traced in buttercream. Then I just added more colors and started to blend them in with my paintbrush. It took me a few days to complete, mainly because I just took my time and was trying some different techniques. It got a little difficult because all that black icing wanted to keep blending with the pretty sunset colors. But my kids didn't mind! They loved the melting sunset, and the fact it dyed their mouths!