Hot Air Balloon Birthday Cake

Here's another cake that's been in the planning stages
for several months now. A 1st birthday cake for my
nephew Matthew!

I used a soccer ball pan (about a 9" round) and a 10" square,
which I carved down to create the balloon. It's a yellow cake
with chocolate buttercream filling and then it was frosted
in vanilla buttercream. Covered in white chocolate fondant.
The "clouds" are lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.
One of the cupcakes was used as a smash cake.
The elephant and other decorations are fondant & gumpaste.

Based on the cake design by Sweet Tiers.
Elephant based on elephant figures done by The CakeChef.
You can check them both out on Flickr.

I am thrilled with how this cake turned out!
Happy 1st Birthday Matthew!