Baby Block Cake

Sometimes I get an idea for a cake design that just takes on a life of its own. I imagine it's similar to what a writer might go through when they have a story that's itching to be written down.
I came up with the idea of this cake when my CrossFit instructor, Deidra asked me to make a cake for her close friend who had just given birth to her first child. She wanted a cake that was just for the new mom and dad -- something they could share between just the two of them to celebrate the wonderful event. Such a sweet idea! I had just received a new cake book (Cakes to Inspire and Desire) a few days before and remembered that it had instructions for what it called a "nursery christening brick" cake. I thought it would be a good challenge so I suggested making three small baby blocks and put the baby's initials on the front, "a", "m", "c" for Annika Marie Cramer. Deidra loved the idea and gave me carte blanche to do whatever else I wanted. Instead of using additional graphics for the backs of the blocks, I used Annika's birth date, which made it all the more special. This also helped keep the baby block theme since so many of them include both numbers and letters, as well as pictures. I got a little carried away with the detail of the blocks. I had so much fun making the little pictures, especially the xylophone and the tree. I especially loved making the mallet for the xylophone because I was able to give its surface a little texture and make it three-dimensional too. I made all the pictures, letters, and numbers out of fondant. The blocks were made from three layers of dark chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss buttercream. The images came from a family of graphics that I found on iStockphoto.com that used as stencils. I am pretty delighted with out the cake came out. I loved the bright colors, the playful graphics, and its small stature. I only wished that I had been able to create a better cube shaped cake with sharper, better defined edges, but I don't think I did too bad for this being my first square cake. It was good practice.