It's a Prairie Dog!

I feel so blessed every time I'm asked to make a cake for one of the teachers at my kids' school... especially when it's one of my kids' teachers.  This was for my daughter's third grade teacher - her daughter wanted a prairie dog cake.  Nothing else mattered so long as there was a prairie dog peaking out of a hole:)

I tried something I've never done before and I was pleased with the results.  When making something three dimensional that is relatively small, either fondant or cereal treats is the way I would normally go.  In this instance, however (since I was already carving away some of the cake for the hole) I decided to use the carved out cake and make a "cake ball" filling using the cake and icing.  It makes kind of a dough-like substance and it's fairly easy to manipulate into a specific shape.  After shaping the cake ball filling into a prairie dog... I simply used the grass tip for the fur and fondant for the ears, eyes, and mouth.  I think he's pretty cute:)

Happy Baking!