B-b-b-b-b-Bailey!

This cake was so much fun and I was so happy to make it. It's for my friend Heather's daughter Bailey. Heather and I haven't known each other too long, but she's been such a good friend, and always comments on how lovely and delicious my cakes look - so when she asked me to make a cake for her daughter Bailey's 3rd birthday, I was happy to do it. I honestly don't know where the time has gone on this one either - it seems like just yesterday Bailey was a year old and I was watching her toddle to the door when I came to pick up a bicycle that Heather was lending me for a bike race when the tires on my bike both went flat the night before!

Anyhow, Heather absolutely loves chocolate, so she wanted chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting and filling, and of course, Bailey's favorite character, Dora the Explorer! As I was preparing to make it, I saw towards the back of my fridge a small container of cream cheese frosting left over from Easter. Since I didn't quite have enough chocolate frosting left over from the cake I made earlier in the week to frost and fill this cake, I asked Heather if it would be okay to mix some of the chocolate frosting with the cream cheese frosting, just to fill the cake with. The outside would still be regular chocolate buttercream. And thus - chocolate cream cheese filling was born! My friend Jennie, who was visiting at the time I was making the cake, taste tested it, since she happens to be a bit of an expert on all things cheesecake from our time in college. Her verdict?  It. . . is. . . divine! Think, chocolate chip cheesecake. Yummy!

So here it is - the Dora face is made with fondant and outlined with black icing. The letters are yellow fondant, dried a bit to make it easier to cut, and the flowers on the sides are fondant as well.

 Happy Birthday Bailey!