Maddie's Zebra Print Birthday cake

For Maddie's 9th birthday cake, she wanted a Zebra print with hot pink trim. Mom was the brains behind this work of art. I helped some until I just couldn't stay awake any longer! And I think we're trying to hit a record on how many trips to the store we can make for one cake (heehee). Black frosting is *very* tricky we learned. You first start out with homemake chocolate butter cream frosting, which is brown of course. Then you can add black tint (paste, not liquid) - lots of it, which then only turns it dark purplish-gray, but we learned that if you take that and let it sit for about an hour or so, it will darken to black. Strange huh? We don't understand it but it works, so we're not questioning it, right Mom?!

Mom made the cupcakes on her own and they were super yummy with pink and white butter cream frosting.

And here I am ready to sample one! mmmmm