A Dora Cake for an A-Dora-ble Girl

A friend of mine from church, Erin, saw some pictures of my cakes & asked me to make one for her daughter's 2nd birthday in early August. She loved Kelsie's design (my first!) & wanted something similar. Fun design, bright colors. She also mentioned that the party was a Dora party & asked if I could swing it, to tie the cake in with the theme. I wasn't ready to tackle making an edible Dora yet, but had some perfect size toys of Dora & Boots, so decided to put those on as toppers.
Erin requested yellow cake with cream cheese frosting & fun colors. Since Peyton's cake, I like to sketch the cake before I make it, I like having visuals to work with. I didn't want her cake to be exactly like Kelsie's, so I changed a few colors, & incorporated striped on one tier.I also stacked the top tier off center this time just to see, & I liked it. I think it adds to the fun of the cake.

I also decided to try modeling chocolate again, for the number 2 topper, & am really happy with the results this time. I molded the 2 with my hands, as I didn't have any kind of mold to use. I placed small wooden dowels in the bottom of the 2 before I put it in the fridge to harden, so that I could easily stand it upright on the cake.
Two things I still need to work on really improving are carving the cakes to be flush around the edges for the dirty icing, (which is the 2nd thing). Because once I've placed my fondant, I can see an obvious distinction between the layers of cake underneath, & I hate that. I made sure with this cake, to use more filling between the layers than I have before. Since the fondant is too sweet for a lot of people, or an unwelcome texture, it's important to have plenty of what they consider "the good stuff" on the inside. :)
Erin & her part guests all gave me wonderful praise, which makes me proud of myself & encourages me to continue to improve my skills!