One Happy Camper Smash Cake

My most recent cake design was for my Nephews First Birthday. My goal was to make this 100% smashable and tried some new techniques to make soft smashable characters that held their shape.

I created these shapes using molds with frozen buttercream and butternache. I found these molds (https://amzn.to/3PcUloL. https://amzn.to/48bHZWH ) and filled them with butternach (half butter and half melted chocolate) and froze before popping out of the mold. Butternach did a great job holding its shape and being smashable at room temp.

I used luster dust to paint the bow after and deer face. Luster dust can be mixed with extracts, vodka or water to paint on. Here's my luster dust that I use it has a great variety of colors. https://amzn.to/44MOqwH

For the cake border the background was created through frozen buttercream transfer. I printed a design and copied it over parchment:

I froze after the first color and topped with a thick layer of white and froze again. Then I softened it a little too wrap around the cake and smoothed it (with a warm spatula/scraper) with the paper still on. I wish I had a picture but once the paper was removed I popped it in the freezer for a few more minutes and scraped a small amount of to give it a smoother more cohesive look.

The 3d trees on the border were made from frozen buttercream. I first brushed the mold with luster dust filled with buttercream and froze. They popped out perfectly. I these warm fast in your fingers so you need to work quickly. I added a blob of buttercream to help them glue on while still frozen. Here are the molds I used for the trees and b other decorations: https://amzn.to/3Lfqye6

The logs were also frozen butternach using the molds above and these molds: https://amzn.to/3sNPumE

The tent was just marshmellow fondant and cake. The fire rocks were leftover fondant brushed with lusterdust. The feet in the tent were also marshmellow fondant. The candles in the fire were cute because they were a little wider and it's a plus they're eco friendly: https://amzn.to/44II9Cc

In the end we ended up with 1 happy camper and a nicely smashed cake!