Birthday Cakes

I thought her Birthday Cakes deserved their own post...

I had so much fun making them...I went through a cake decorating phase in college and even though I haven't done much of it since I had all the tools. When we started planning Lauren's party I knew I wanted to make her cake...but what to do?

I wasn't very good at decorating in the first place..it was a short lived phase and I never got past making iced roses..and those looked more like tulips than roses. I just didn't have the time or patience to hone my skills. So when deciding on a design, I knew it had to be simple.

My original thought was to make a cupcake using a pan from Williams-Sonoma that is actually shaped like a cupcake. The pan has two sides; the bottom of the cupcake, or the stump and then the top swirly frosting part. After baking all you have to do was pop out the two halves and frost the top swirly part. My plan was to order a regular sheet cake and then put the cupcake on top of it (using dowels for support because it was actually pretty heavy).

I made a first attempt a week prior to her birthday just to try it out since I had to bring a dessert to the church potluck. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right proportions of batter in the mix and the stump ended up being too short. So the whole thing ended up looking like a turd.

Turd Cake

(I joked that I should frost it with chocolate frosting and sprinkle it with kernels of corn.)

A few days before her bday, I came upon an adorable but more complicated design. It was a layered tower of cakes assembled to look like one huge birthday candle. It was perfect for her first birthday! The original had six 6" round layers and each layer was covered in fondant of a different color (pastels). I changed the design a bit and instead of using fondant I used regular white whipped frosting and multi colored large confetti sprinkles. I made the cakes 2 days ahead and kept them in the fridge and assembled/frosted/decorated them on the morning of the party. It was a little scary transferring it onto her sheet cake but it was stable enough with the dowels and the supports that I inserted. It wasn't perfect and I really need to learn how to make the frosting smoother..oh, and it was leaning a little too. All in all, though I think it turned out pretty cute.

The candle-cake is Funfetti (white cake with sprinkles) and whipped vanilla frosting. The sheet cake was chocolate with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting.

I still made the original cupcake idea I had as a backup plan in case the candle cake didn't work out. It actually turned out really cute and I'll probably make it again for another party...it was soo easy..especially since I used cake mix.

Funfetti cake with strawberry frosting.

This whole experience has whetted my appetite for cake decorating again. I've got all the tools, I might as well. I think I'll sign up for a class.