Preheat oven to 170°Celsius. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake tins.

In a medium sized bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy for approximately 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl half way through.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time and each time, beat until the all the traces of the egg are no longer visible.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate large bowl. Fold these sifted dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk. Start and end with the flour mixture, in 3 batches.

Finally, fold in the vanilla extract. Mix well.

Divide batter into the two cake tins and level the tops. Bake the cakes for 45 to 50 minutes, until a skewer or cake tester inserted in the center of the cakes come out without any wet batter.

Once baked, remove cakes from oven. Let them cool in the tins for about 2 minutes, and then loosen the sides with a butter knife and turn the cakes over onto wire racks. Turn them over again to face upwards and let the cakes cool completely to room temperature before frosting and decorating.

Add butter into a medium sized bowl and beat for approximately 1 minute.

Sift in the icing sugar and mix it into the creamed butter with a spoon before using the cake mixer. This will avoid the sugar from flying as you turn on your cake mixer.

Cream both the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and cream again until well combined. If the buttercream appears too stiff, add some milk. Beat until the mixture is all smooth and creamy.

To make the dog, start with its body. Roll some white fondant into a thick short sausage and then make one end of it slightly pointed upwards. That end is to be the dog’s neck. Leave the other end of the sausage rounded.

Next is the head. In making the head, make sure the size is proportionate to the body. Start by rolling some white fondant into a smooth round ball. And then roll the front portion to be slightly pointed. This is to form the nose and mouth portions of the dog.

Next, roll some brown fondant thin and wrap it around the dog’s head from the bottom, ending right after its ears on the head. Using the same colored fondant, I add a large brown spot on the dog’s body. And using the same brown, form the ears.

After that, use the fondant tools to cut a small slit for its mouth and to insert the dog's tongue.

To make the tongue, pinch a small piece of pink fondant, press it thin into a longish rounded shape and use the sugar craft knife to mark a line in the center. Brush some fondant glue to the dog's mouth and carefully push one end of the tongue into the dog's mouth. And then curl the portion that was jotting out to give it a more natural tongue look.

Next, add the nose and the eyes (form these with black fondant and attach to the face with fondant glue).

Once the face is done, add the legs. To make these, pinch 4 equal-sized white fondant pieces for the 4 legs. Roll each of them into medium-sized sausages, flatten the ends (one side vertically and the other side horizontally), and attached them to the dog's body. Refer to the image in the blog post above for the positioning of the legs.

Once all the four legs are on, use the sugar craft knife to mark the paws on each of the dog’s legs and then form and add the dog's tail. To make the tail, roll a piece of brown fondant into a pointy rope and attach it to the back of the dog.

And finally, add a tiny pink flower on the dog’s head. Cut the flower using the flower plunger cutter. And that completes the dog cake topper. Set it aside to firm up and set.

Once the cakes have cooled down completely, level the tops and stack them with buttercream in between. And them crumb coated the cake, also with buttercream.

Next, cover the cake with white fondant. And then place it on a white fondant covered cake board.

Using the same flower plunger cutter used to cut the flower on the dog’s head, cut out lots of tiny brown flowers and attach these (with fondant glue) all around the base of the cake as its border. In the center of each of these flowers, attach a smaller pink flower, also with fondant glue.

Cut out a round piece in brown using the scalloped round cutter and attach it to the center of the cake. On it, add a smaller cut out in pink. And then place the dog on these cutouts and secured it to the cake with glue.

Make another set of similar cutouts in brown and pink and place them on the front side of the cake.

Next, add wordings on the cake. Cut these with the TAPPIT letter cutters in Funky font in pink-tinted gum paste. The letters are best cut using gum paste as gum paste can be rolled paper thin (almost transparent) without tearing. For the Tappit letter cutters to work well, the gum paste must be rolled very thin. It also helps to let the rolled gum paste to dry slightly, for a minute or two before cutting.

Once the letters are all cut, add the birthday child's name on the cake and the birthday wishes on the board. And add the age number on the round cutouts on the side of the cake. Attach all these with shortening.

The last step in making this dog cake design is to add the brown and pink dots on the cake. Cut the dots with the round plunger cutters in various sizes and place them randomly on the cake to complete the cake decoration.