So the idea of a checkerboard cake was the whole reason I came up with the idea of an Alice in Wonderland party theme. My sister took cake decorating classes a few years ago, and she gave me her checkerboard cake pan set over New Year’s.

I made the bottom tier of the cake a week prior to the party, and froze the layers  until I was ready for them (per my sister’s recommendation-they’re easier to ice that way). In retrospect, I probably should have cut the individual layers flat before freezing, but this was meant to be a learning experience. ;-)

A couple days prior to the party, I pulled out the layers and stacked them. I originally wanted the cake to be topsy-turvy, so I decided to go for it, and carved it out:

I LOVE this picture. This is when I LOVED my cake.

After I dirty iced, (;-)) I covered in plastic wrap (need to get a couple cake carriers that I use transport in) and stuck it in the fridge until I was ready to cover it with fondant.

dirty iced

That night I also baked the layers for the second tier, and stuck ’em in the freezer. The night before the dinner, I did the layers for the top tier.

Saturday dawned, and the day was spent on the cake. First thing was to assemble the top two tiers and dirty ice. Into the refrigerator they go.

Then I pulled out tier one for fondant. Oh, fondant. How hard you are to roll out. And this is where my mother entered the scene. She helped me roll all the fondant for the cake. The white for the bottom tier was still a bit thicker than it should have been, I think, but such is life. At that point I did not care. ;-)

covered in too much fondant.

This is the part that I found most difficult, which may have been easier had the fondant been thinner. There were a couple spots of  rippage and wrinkles in the fondant, but again, I wasn’t too worried at that point. We rolled the red for the base and used a cutter to make the squares and began to assemble.

Enter Dad. I gave him the task of cutting my dowel rods for the supports. As mom began to roll out the fondant for the second tier, I cut out and made my playing cards (edible markers). (Favorite part!)

the finished product!

After that, it was just piecing everything together. The drawing of the rabbit hole on the back was to fill empty space that I had planned to fill with a few rose bushes, but the one I made didn’t look like I wanted, so I changed my mind. Ended up loving the rabbit hole though.

The crown was meant to match the actual QoH crown I had for the guests, but I was running out of red fondant and had to change the design.

Overall, it was a fun cake, and very educational to build. You can see the blemishes, but it just adds character, right? ;-) Not quite like the cake I pictured originally, but pretty sweet nonetheless.

this is my original sketch. Maybe someday...