Hello. I am a total novice at cake decorating, and have next to no experience. My daughter is turning two in May and she loves cows. At this very moment she is standing here with her stuffed cow saying "Moooo Cow!". I want to make a simple cow themed cake. I am open to ideas but I was thinking maybe making a cake iced with buttercream, and then making spot out of fondant? Again, I know nothing about buttercream or fondant. I was then thinking or writing Happy Birthday with pink icing of some sort, and using pink candles, in addition to some kind of cow figurine to top it all off.

Maybe someone can suggest something even simpler for me, like some kind of candy that would look like spots. HELP ME! I really want to make her cake myself to save money, plus it would be more special that way.

Thank you

AI think your idea is cute! I say go for it!

Can I just make or buy a buttercream icing, and then apply the rolled and shaped fondant to it, or are there any  steps I must take to ensure it will adhere and look good?? Any suggestions as to best way to make, or best kind of icings to buy?

There are lots of great ideas in the gallery.  type in  "cow cake"  in the search window up in the top right corner of the home page. On the next screen click on images in the list on the left side.  Have fun!

The best way to search is to use google.  For example write in       fondant accents cake central            and a bunch of relevant threads from cake central show up.  You certainly can do what you are talk about with a little research and a little practice.  Make or buy white buttercream.  Put it on your cake.  Buy ready made black fondant at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc.  Roll it out on a smooth surface that has a little bit of shortening spread on it.  Cut it out with a knife into your black shapes and put it on the icing.  Color a little of the icing pink to do your writing.  Buy a cute cow figurine to put on top.  It can be more complicated than that if you are doing a stacked or layered cake, etc, but if you break it down, you certainly can do it.  You could even buy the pink icing in a tube that way you can just pipe it on right from the little tube and not have to buy tips and bags. 

Your fondant should stick to the buttercream very easily.  Here is a easy buttercream that is pretty hard to mess up..lol

3/4 c powdered milk

12 T water

2 c crisco

2 T meringue powder

2 t almond extract

10-12 c sifted powdered sugar

Mix powdered milk and water well.  Add crisco and mix until creamy.  Add meringue powder and extract.  Add powdered sugar gradually 1 cup at a time scraping sides of bowl when needed.  

Here is a buttercream cake with fondant cutouts we did...