How much (time) did that doggy-on-the-cake take, woof woof..

... The one with the black and white tail. It was my middle niece's birthday recently; there was only one thing she was going to want on her cake... a replica of the family's new crazy and cute puppy, Domino - pictured here frolicking on the beach.

I looked at a few options for making dog-shaped cakes, but since there were only about 12 of us eating, and the cakes I looked at required baking about four different batches of batter to get enough height, I decided a cake topper was the way forward. So out came the fondant icing. I use Tesco's ready made stuff, and colouring (Wilton's is my favourite) on different balls, to make some black, blue and pink blobs; I kept the rest white. I first made the dog's head, then a rounded triangular blob for the body, then stuck on the paws. For the patches, I cute them out separately, then stuck them on.

The dinner bowl was a rounded blob with a thumb firmly stuck through it, moulded by my friend Danielle, roped into helping after popping round for waffle dinner - the tennis ball was also her excellent added touch. 

The cake itself is my favourite birthday mix - Nigella's old fashioned chocolate cake (whatever her reputation, her recipes still make brilliant cakes). But the wobbly letters of 'Lily' have inspired me to splurge on this Lakeland set of alphabet cutters, which I'm excited to use on my next cake..