Tinkerbell Cake, attempting to use the Cricut Cake Machine

Well, I don't think I've ever been so frustrated in all my life!  I bought the Cricut Cake Mini on Black Friday at Jo-Ann's for $99 and offered to bake a birthday cake for my neighbor's 3 year old granddaughter's birthday party.  It was very easy making the marshmallow fondant, but the hard part was getting the right consistency so that it would cut with the machine.  I designed everything I wanted on to go on the cake but I think maybe my border and some of the design elements were too intricate for the machine.  I also don't think it helped that I baked a double layer 9" x 13" rectangle cake for my first fondant cake - it was very hard to get the fondant to fit the size of the cake; the fondant needed to be at least 17" x 21" to cover the cake!  I can't help but wonder if it would have been easier to start with a round cake?!?!?!  That wasn't the only frustrating part though.

It took me four tries before I decided my fondant wasn't working, so I scrapped the fondant as I thought it might have been worked just a little too much and made a new batch.  I did see improvements with all the practice and then it finally took me 3 more times before I was able to cover the cake.  Whew!   I finally gave up on using the machine for the details that I designed.   I even tried buying Wilton's gum paste, which did work a little better with my machine but I couldn't stand the smell of that stuff so I threw it out!  It's down-right nasty smelling!  There is no way I would eat a cake that smelt that bad, so I couldn't possibly put it on a cake for someone else!

Finally, I gave up using the Cake Machine AND using fondant, and then added my design elements (albeit not as fancy) by decorating the cake the "old-fashioned" way - using royal icing!

Overall, I was happy with the end result of the Tinkerbell cake, but very frustrated with my machine.  It will be awhile before I tackle using it again.  :(

There were numerous youtube videos I watched with people using the Cake Machine and the making of marshmallow fondant, but it didn't seem to help me!  If anyone has any helpful hints, PLEASE let me know!  I love the concept of the Cake Machine but have not been lucky enough to have it work for me.

Below are a two pictures of the cake - (isn't the Tinkerbell candle adorable??)

Thanks for looking.  Have an awesome day.
Toodles,  Jude