One Year Old!

 One year ago today, my dear friend had a baby girl.  I can't believe how fast that year has flown by!  It seems like yesterday, I was making this quilt for her.

 Her family is having a little party for her tonight and I got to make the smash cake for little Avery to demolish.  Just a simple white cake, two six-inch rounds stacked on top of each other, frosted with buttercream.  I printed out a large "1" on my computer, put it on top of the cake, and sprinkled the top to death.  Make sure to push the sprinkles down a little with your hand, ensuring they stick to the frosting.  Peel off your paper number, fix any frosting disturbances, and you can call that cake DONE!

I'm bummed that I can't make the party to take pictures of this in all it's messy glory, but I'm hoping Mom will get some good shots for me to see later.

Happy 1st Birthday Avery!

Simple Star Wars Cake

We kept the cake simple this year.

Two 8 inch rounds, frosted with cream cheese buttercream and spray painted gold with food coloring spray paint.  Topped with silver star sprinkles, a couple of light sabers made with gel frosting, and a birthday sign.  The birthday boy loved it and it was so easy to make.  Win win!

Three Layer Cake

The next time you make a layer cake, take a couple extra minutes and add some food coloring to each pan before baking.  Your kids will love it when it is cut and served. Each of my boys got to choose a color for one layer...hence the lack of pink or purple cake.

This was a "just because" cake.  Sometimes, those are my favorite ones.  Thanks for all your messes help boys!

Artist's Palette Cake

This cake was made for an arts and crafts loving 10 year old.

 Started off with a confetti cake leveled and iced with chocolate frosting.

Rolled out some white fondant.

Cut out a shape and shaved down the sides bit by bit until it would fit on the top of the cake.  I just eye-balled it.  Smoothed out any jagged knife cuts with my fingers and some powdered sugar.

Mixed up a few colors for the paint.  I did a thin consistency of frosting and used Wilton gels for the colors.

 I placed the fondant palette on the cake first and then added the paint colors.

 I improvised for my border and combined all my leftover colored frosting into one piping bag fitted with a #22 tip.  The consistency was a little thin, but it ended up looking like dripping paint a bit, which I liked.

Simple and cute.

Made a quick triangle pennant using my Silhouette software and the Waterbrush font.  Used a paintbrush for the pennant's pole.

She loved it!

Happy Birthday, Brenna!

Lego Number Cake

Our friend, David, was turning 6 and wanted a Lego Cake.  We got to work.

Start off with two sheet cakes.  I used jelly roll pans and it worked out great.

While the cakes are baking, make yourself a pattern for cutting.  I measured my cake pan, cut a piece of butcher paper to that size, and then made a grid using a ruler.

I didn't measure things out exactly, I just used the width of my ruler as my guide.  I like to cut corners like that.

Frost one of your cakes.

Flip the other cake on top of the frosted one.  Hopefully you used flour or a lot of cooking spray to keep your cake from sticking.  Not too bad.

Place template on top of cake.

Cut with a serrated knife. Clean up edges a bit if needed.

Frost.

I did big dollops, just eyeballing where to place them for the little Lego "teeth".  What are they really called?

Flatten dollops with your finger dipped in a little cornstarch.  Excess cornstarch will eventually fade or can be brushed off carefully.

I added the Lego words onto the teeth.  I like to be authentic when possible.

Made a sign.  I didn't put it in the cake until it was at the party.

Lego cake complete.  Took an hour or less after baking and cooling time.  Any single digit would look really good.  I may be using this idea in the future, as we still have some Lego lovers at our house too.

Happy Birthday David!

Angry Birds Cake

We saw this amazing video HERE of an Angry Birds interactive cake.  My birthday boy was smitten and had to have it.  I admit, it looked like a lot of fun, so we went for it.

Started off with a sturdy, wooden board, covered in aluminum foil.  I colored some frosting green for grass and spread a thin layer all over the top.  Sorry for some of the dark pictures.  I did this at night after the kids were in bed.

The building blocks for the cake were frosted chocolate cake pieces and ice blocks from our "Don't Break the Ice" game.

Our wooden logs were Little Debbie Nutty Bars.  Yum.

Instead of making a traditional Angry Birds structure, we decided it would spell out the birthday boy's name.  The "S" was the hardest letter.  I used some strategically placed toothpicks, chocolate frosting, and a prayer...it held!  It actually didn't need the piggies to hold it up, but since we were going to be moving the cake a couple of times, I thought better safe than sorry. 

The "C" had a couple of toothpicks as well.  The rest of the letters just had frosting glue.

A dab of frosting on the bottom held the letters to the board as well.  If you really want a strong hold, use royal icing instead of buttercream.  It hardens really well.

Our Angry Birds and piggies were a combo from an Angry Birds board game and some figures purchased on Amazon.  My kids have played with them every day since the party, worth every penny.

Since I was going to let the kids destroy the cake, we decided to bake some cupcakes for the adults and anyone else who didn't want demolished cake for dessert.  I found the Angry Birds font online and cut out letters in green cardstock with my Silhouette.  Kabob sticks worked great, holding the letters up high so you could see them behind the structure.

The kids and birds won this battle.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Sidenote:  This cake took less than 2 hours from start to finish, plus baking time for the cake pieces.  The guy in the video above made his own ice blocks, birds, and piggies.  I took the easy route by using some non edible things and saved myself hours and hours of work.  This is a big impact cake for minimal effort.  Let me know if any of you make one too!

Semi-Homemade Cupcakes

Helped make some cupcakes for a friend who was hosting a shower recently.  She bakes the cupcakes and then bought the most yummy buttercream frosting from a local cupcake shop.  I just brought over my decorating tips and we added some sprinkles to finish it off.  Such an easy way to save some money and time.  I will be doing this in the future for my own hosting responsibilities.

Hunger Games Cake

My mom made a cake for a local Boy Scout fundraiser, all the cakes and desserts were being auctioned off to earn money for the scouts.  She went with a Hunger Games theme and I thought she did a fantastic job.  

Two 8x8 square cakes with homemade chocolate frosting.  The flames were made by melting yellow and red hard candies in the oven and breaking them into the desired shape when cool.  The mockingjays are yellow cardstock (larger versions of THESE).  The white letters were hand cut, using fondant.

Great job, mama.  Wish we lived closer so we could work on stuff like this together instead of over the phone.  :)

Homemade Lemon Curd

My friend loves (amongst other things) lemon and chocolate.  For her birthday, I made her a lemon berry trifle with homemade lemon curd.  You can find the recipe for the lemon curd HERE.  I only used their lemon curd recipe and made up my own version of trifle.

The curd was amazing.  Light, smooth, and very lemony.  It was a bit of a labor of love because you have to stand and stir it while it cooks for 20 minutes, BUT it was worth it!  I will make it again.  I'm thinking for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in July....it's in London, so lemon curd with scones and tea sounds just about right.   

(My husband will roll his eyes when he reads that last bit.)

Here's my trifle.

A layer of diced poppy seed muffins (mine are from Costso), lemon curd, fresh berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries), and fresh whipped cream.  Repeat layers until you reach the top of your bowl.

My whipped cream was heavy cream, about a teaspoon of vanilla, a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and the juice of one lemon.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form.  My measurements were approximate.  I tasted as I went.

The top was decorated with lemon slices and my son insisted we spell out a "J" for the birthday girl.

Another friend brought the chocolate decadence with the candles on it (also in a "J").  It was delish and would satisfy any chocolate craving. 

Happy Birthday!