This cake was for a baby shower.

The top tier is an elephant sitting on top of the cake. Between the top and bottom tier, is a bear, lion, tiger and zebra.

I got this idea from a Wilton Yearbook. Of course, I modified the directions, which I almost always do!

The animals are made from fondant. I used 1″ and 1 1/2″ styrofoam balls from Michaels for the animals.

First, I inserted plastic dowel sticks into the styrofoam balls to make the holes through the balls. Note: don’t cut the dowel sticks until you know how thick the cake is, as these sticks also serve as support between tiers.

Using colored fondant for each animal, wrap fondant around each ball; use the larger size balls for the body of the animal and the smaller ball for the head. Use black fondant for the eyes and nose, use a black food marker to draw the mouth. I hand-rolled the arms and legs, to the correct proportion of the animal.

To get the fringe of hair around the lion, I took a long narrow piece of fondant, and cut it on the long side, just enough to give it the fringe look, but not cutting all the way to the end; next, I wrapped it around the “head” of the lion over and over to make it look layered.

The ears of each of the animals are also made from the same fondant. I just “eye-balled” what looked “right” for the size and shape of the ears.

I used green fondant around the edge of the cake for grass, I also put green fondant on the cake boards to continue the grassy look. I used a green food marker to draw blades of grass on the fondant.

Once the bottom cake is iced, put the animals on the dowels, insert the dowels into the cake. Cut off any exposed plastic from the dowels above the animal heads, then place the top tier on top of the dowel sticks (the animal’s heads).

The “Welcome Baby” sign behind the elephant is held up with pretzel sticks.

*common sense disclaimer: if you’re taking the cake to another location, do not stack the tiers until you get to the party site! .