My First Two Tiered Fondant Cake - Super Mario Kart Birthday

Last year I joined Icing Smiles and they recently asked me to make a cake for two boys celebrating their birthday. The party was Super Mario Kart Theme and I just couldn't wait to get started on it.  I don't play video games so I looked at the games website to see all the characters and items in the game. I just love sculpting and set out to make Mario himself sitting in a race car.  It was a challenge as I had to wing it every step of the way. Usually I can find some sort of guidance online, like a tutorial, but I was on my own with this one.  I tried to copy the racecar in the game as best I could and I think the likeness is pretty close to the original.  

First roll out fondant about 3/4" thick and cut a rectangle about 2.5 x 4".  Cut another piece into a triangle with a 2.5" base and about 3" tall (eyeball it) and secure it to the front of the rectangle at an angle (slice the back of the triangle base to get the angle you need).  Use some plastic wrap crumbled up to keep the front of the car supported as it dries.  You are going to need to angle it high enough so that Mario's feet fit up front. 

once dried (I waited til the next day), I rolled some red fondant and smoothed it over the front of the car. 

oops, missed some progress photos (new at this tutorial thing).  I also covered the base in red fondant, and added a steering wheel and black trim.  I place Mario on the car to make sure he fit.

I added blue fondant around the front bottom portion of the car and then added white fondant to cover the seam between the red and blue fondant and will color that with silver luster dust so that it looks like a bumper or whatever you call it. Also, I added the tires and propped my rolling pin and some fondant up against them so they can dry in place.  I also completed Mario's outfit and added his arms and hands.

To finish the back of the race car, I rolled black fondant into two tapered cones and adhered them to the back of the vehicle. Again I propped a bottle up to them so that they can stay upright on an angle while they dry in place. Although I didn't do it here, I would insert some toothpicks into the two pipes as I think this will help reinforce them in place. 

I made the wheels out of black fondant, rolled them into a ball and squished them down a bit and placed some yellow trim on them to look like wheels (below). Something I will do in the future is run my small balling tool over the top of the tires to make tire tracks. In this case I waited too long and Satin Ice fondant tends to create a crust rather quickly which cracks if you try to do anything to it.  That is one of the reasons I prefer to use my homemade marshmallow fondant with a little bit of tylose powder mixed in.  I tend to only use red and black fondant that is ready made by satin ice because I think it is easier to just use that than to mix it on my own because my MMF usually gets too gummy. 

Ahhhh,  Mario's face. I just love how adorable he turned out.  Hand sculpted, he is pretty basic.  No real contouring of the face is needed.  I pushed sockets in for the eyes and made a small mouth which is mostly covered by his mustache anyway.

And here is the finished MarioKart figurine. I just think he is adorable! 

I also made all the little mario items out of marshmallow fondant and satin ice fondant.  The board is covered in white MMF. 

Coming soon: a full tutorial on you tube of the cake construction.  The cake is chocolate with chocolate ganache filling and covered with the same ganache under the MMF.  I just love using ganache under fondant far better than buttercream under fondant.  The fondant adheres so much better and I have a much easier time smoothing it out.  I'm thrilled with how this cake turned out and just can't wait to start my next cake.