Making Homemade Ballet Shoe Cake with No Special Equipment

I'm really proud of myself for this cake that I made. My kids had an unbirthday party (meaning I never managed to make them a birthday party this year but still wanted to give them a party) and I decided with my girls that theirs would be ballet themed. As soon as this was decided, I already had an idea in my head as to how I'd be making their cake, and I think these ballet shoes cake came out absolutely adorable.

As you can tell, I'm definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to things like cake making, or in general, but I wanted to share with you how I made this cake so that you can make it too (and make it even more perfect if you want). It didn't take any special equipment or any special ingredients and was all made from scratch. Oh, and it was with all natural food coloring, homemade fondant, and gluten free.

To start with, I had to decide how I wanted to make the shape of the cake. I didn't have a ballet shoe mold and had no intention of purchasing one for this party. I figured that I could either bake in a pan and cut to shape or use pans that I had and make them into the right shape.
So I decided to use these aluminum foil pains, called english cake pans locally, that are long and narrow. But because they were aluminum and disposable, I was able to bend their sides in a few places so that the cake ended up wider and more oval shaped than the pan would generally allow.

I used this marble cake recipe made with gluten free all purpose flour mix; it was the perfect amount for a cake this size.

I then used this recipe for homemade easy fondant to turn these oval shaped cakes into ballet shoes. First I made white fondant and set some aside for the inside of the shoes, and then used the rest to make pink by adding a little bit of beet juice (grated a beet then squeezed it out by hand) and added more powdered sugar.

I then just rolled out fondant between sheets of parchment paper, adding powdered sugar as needed to make it less sticky, then placed it on the cake, one "shoe" at a time, then removed the parchment paper. I learned after this, though, that this wasn't the best way, because even if its not sticking to the parchment paper, the second you try to get it off it can start sticking again to the parchment paper and can rip... I found it most useful to use a thin spatula to separate the fondant from the parchment paper and then place it on.
So after I put pink fondant on each shoe and cut away the excess, I then rolled out white ovals and placed them on top. Then I put two "ribbons" of pink fondant that I folded "artistically" at the top and then made two more bows for the front of the shoe.

Apparently you're supposed to use buttercream under fondant, but I'm a total novice here, and I don't think any of the kids cared.

The cake got oohss and ahhs and was loved by all, especially the "unbirthday" girls.

More on the rest of the party in another post.

I loved how I figured out how to make this cake that pleased my daughters, fit the theme they wanted, and didn't take any special skill to make. Even if it wasn't a perfect cake.

Are you experienced with fondant? Any other tips for fondant users? Ever made ballet themed parties? What types of cake did you make for that theme?