Mocha Madness!

I wanted to try a new twist on chocolate cake for my coffee loving friends.  So I experimented a bit and according to my husband, this is the best tasting cake I've ever made!  And it was SUPER easy to do!

To get the mocha flavor, I used a box of chocolate fudge cake mix and substituted the water for vanilla flavored coffee that I brewed at home.  Before I added the coffee to the other ingredients I made sure it was room temperature.  I wasn't sure if it would work hot or not.  After the cake was baked, I soaked more coffee right on to the cake with a basting brush.  

I also made regular chocolate buttercream and added quite a bit of room temperature coffee right to it.  I cut back a little on the milk and continued adding coffee and powdered sugar and cocoa until the flavor and consistency were perfect.

Easy Homemade Pirate Cake

Here is an easy to make pirate cake that the kids go nuts for.  Even if you don't decorate a lot of cakes, this is one you should be able to tackle.  

I made a double cake and frosted a crumb coat.  As you can see, this cake was very crumbly!  After the all important crumb coat, I stuck the cake in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to let the crumb coat harden.

Next I frosted the sides of the cake in blue buttercream.  Then I used a toothpick to draw an outline of where I wanted the ocean and beach to be.  I spread brown icing on the beach side and blue icing on the ocean side.  The nicest part about this cake is that you don't have to get any of the frosting smooth!  Just smear it on!  I even used my spatula to make the water extra wavy.

My Take on a Buttercream Cowgirl Cake

Here's my take on a cowgirl cake made with buttercream.  

I made a 3 layer, 10 inch, bottom cake and frosted it (smooth) in pink buttercream.  Then I piped on black and white paisley designs to look like a bandanna.  I made a separate 3 tier, 6 inch cake and frosted it in white buttercream.  Then I used canned chocolate frosting to make the cow spots.  Before frosting the cakes I added a little homemade simple syrup to each layer to keep it moist.  I also used my candy molds to make pink and white chocolate boots to place around the cake.

  

Cars Cake Tutorial

A lot of people have sent me questions about the construction cake I posted a few months ago.  This weekend I made a similar cake so I figured I'd turn it into a mini tutorial which may help.  

DISCLAIMER!!!!  

I am not a cake decorator.  I'm just a mom who likes to try to make cool cakes for my kiddos and their friends.  My way may not be the RIGHT way but it's the way that works for me.  Hopefully you can take some of the ideas here and tweak them to work for you. 

You can totally make this cake!  It's pretty simple!

This is the tip I used...the "grass tip".

It's a Jungle Out There!

My brother & sister-in-law threw an adorable safari themed party this weekend.  I know it wasn't my party, but it was so cute I had to share it here.  I have no idea what their budget was but I'm certain you can pick and choose some of their ideas to include at your own safari party.  

Here's a brief recap..

Upon arrival kids were able to choose an animal hat and bracelet (so it's already a hit in my kids' eyes).  My mom & I were recruited to paint animal faces on all of the kids.  Next, the kids went on an animal hunt and tried to spot beanie animals hidden in the bushes.  The grand finale was having a lizard man arrive with tons of creatures which the kids were able to hold!  They saw snakes, lizards, tortoises,  tarantulas, and a 40 pound Albino Python!  It was seriously fun!  They served lunch, cake, and opened presents.   Before leaving the kids were allowed to choose one of the hidden animals as a party favor (my kids were thrilled about that).  They also had the most amazing safari candy apples, that my friend Holly made.  You are going to flip when you see the them!  It was a really well thought out, exciting and fun party that my kids loved...and the adults had a great time too.  

I snapped a few shots on my phone...check them out.

This is the cake I made.  I thought it needed some sass for my niece so I added the turquoise.  Hot pink would have been cute too.

Star Wars Cake

As you know my son is having a Star Wars party (...in just 2 days)!  He requested an R2D2 cake, so this is my attempt at it.  This cake was not difficult to make but it was REALLY time consuming.  I broke it up into a couple of days; one for baking, one for assembling, and one for the details.  If I did it again, I'd make two attempts at the details.  My hand was really sore after all of the piping.  

So here's what I did...I made one cake in a glass bowl for the top of his head.   I also made 4 eight inch round cakes.  I stacked the rounds with frosting in between the layers and I added several dowels for support.  Then I placed the head on top.  I did a quick crumb coat and put it back in the fridge.  After about twenty minutes I put a smooth layer of white icing all around the cake.  I did this before I added the legs so I could get it as smooth as possible.  

Next I used store bought Rice Crispy Treats for the legs.  I used 2 on each side for the height.  I rounded the tops and then added little triangles to the bottom to give his legs the right shape.  I attached the legs with frosting and put a layer of frosting on the outside of them too.  Then I put R2 back in the refrigerator until the next day.

A for Effort???

My husband's friend requested a Storm Trooper cake for his son's party.  His wife found a youtube video showing how one mom made it so I thought I'd give it a try.  Next month my oldest son is having a Star Wars party so this was going to be good practice.  Most of the examples on the internet are made with fondant, which I don't use.  Unfortunately, the cake was WAY harder than it looked and didn't turn out that great.  However, I thought the technique was pretty cool and could be tweaked to make lots of different of cakes.  So, here's how I did it...not my best work, but definitely my best effort.

I made simple syrup for the first time, with equal parts sugar and water that I boiled in a pot.  I added a whole lemon to it as well.  Then I used buttercream frosting and my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl as a mold.

I lined my Kitchen Aid bowl.  Plastic wrap would work but I usually end up annoyed with it so I went with good old wax paper instead.

Pink Dinos

My daughter's friend wanted a pink dinosaur cake for her birthday.  I didn't have much time and I wasn't sure what to do.  I took inspiration from her party invitation and came up with this.  Thankfully the birthday girl liked it!

Rainbow Cake How To...

Rainbow Cake How To...

My original plan was to have the inside of the cake rainbow colored and have it iced in all white.  That's really the only way I've seen it done, and as you know by now, almost all of my ideas are borrowed from somewhere and tweaked to fit my needs.  I was telling my mom my plan and she said she thought the cake would be prettier if I made the outside rainbow colored too.  I didn't want to hear it.  I didn't want to think about how I was going to do it.  And I really didn't want to make 6 different colors of frosting.  But I did...and I'm really happy about it.  It turned out prettier than plain white and everyone was still super surprised when we cut into it!

Here's how I did it.

I made 3 white cakes, splitting each in half to give me 6 layers.  Each half was tinted with Wilton gel food coloring and baked.  Then I froze them.  After the cakes were frozen I sliced about 1/3 off the top so that my cake wouldn't be too tall.  I put them in the freezer until I was ready to frost them another day. Next I put a white buttercream crumb coat on top and in between the layers.  And then I added several dowels to hold my cake together.

I mixed 6 colors of frosting and used disposable piping bags since there were so many colors.  I used Wilton tip 12.  It's just a big open circle.  I squeezed a dollop of frosting and then squished it and swept my tip through it.  I began with the purple and worked my way up the side of the cake.

The Last of the Cake Files.

 I'm not a baker; just a mom who likes making special things for the people I love. 15 years ago my mom and I took a cake decorating class at our local Michaels store.  It was a fun experience for us and here I am, years later, still using the basics I learned so long ago.  

When my daughter turned two I began my obsession with themed cakes.  I have my own little process that I use when I make a cake.  I Google search cake images, visit party sites and baking sites, and of course I check out the cakes on Coolest Birthday Cakes.com which displays thousands of homemade cakes made by moms just like you and me.  

The process goes like this...I bookmark several cakes and choose elements I want to incorporate into my own creation.  I never copy a cake exactly, but I borrow ideas and mesh things together to come up with something a little different.  Occasionally I have to come up with an idea on my own but I always find something on the internet that I use as a guide to help me with my creative confection.

Here's a peek at some of the buttercream concoctions I've come up with...

Keely's "Purple & Pink Kitty Party".  This one was tough!  Lots of carving and stacking layers to get the 3D look.  I've learned to stick to more basic shapes.  However, I will say, this cake was a big hit with my birthday girl.

My little one, Gage, had a "block party" for his first birthday.  His name fit perfectly on the sides of the cake.  The inside was 4 layers (yellow, chocolate, yellow, chocolate).

Cash really wanted a bulldozer...a bulldozer!!!  I was lucky enough to find a tutorial on-line.  I used two loaf pans for this. Thank goodness for Google!

The bulldozer cake was too small for the whole family so I used the same idea as the "Cars" cake (see last post) and changed it to look like a construction site.  The kids went nuts for the Oreo road.

The Cake Files...

To piggyback off of my last post, here are some cakes that were made after the original owl cake.

My son Cash's first birthday cake.  Hey...I tried and remember, it was made with love.

My daughter Keely's Pinkalicious cake for her 3rd birthday.

An Expression of My Love....

My daughter Keely was in love, (make that obsessed) with owls from the time she learned to walk.  When thinking of a theme for her second birthday party the only logical decision was to have an owl party.  This was back in 2006 and I had never heard of these over the top, crazy expensive, themed parties that are now being thrown.  But I took the owl idea and ran with it.  We had owl pizzas, owl cookies and of course we had to have an owl cake!  

I had never made any kind of cake except your standard 8 inch round...usually with canned frosting.  This was a challenge for me!  

Here it is.  My first attempt at a themed cake!

Even though this certainly is not the most beautiful cake ever made, it was made lovingly from my heart.  The best part of all is it inspired me to want to make more!  This cake started a tradition!  My kids all know that Mommy will do my best to make them an extra special birthday cake, every year, any theme, any color, any flavor.  Their cakes are unique and special (and not quite perfect)...just like them.  Making a special cake is a huge expression of my love.  If I make a cake for you, it's because you are very important to me!

Toy Story Mania Cake

It's tradition!  I always make birthday cakes for my children's two best friends' birthday parties.  Each year they "put their order in" and look forward to having a fancy cake to go along with their birthday theme. Apparently they think I'm some kind of professional baker because the requests are getting harder and harder.  I usually panic at first and decide there is no way I can possibly make the cake they requested (this is also true for the cakes my own kids request) but then I quickly realize that the kids don't really care if the cake is perfect which allows me to relax a little and get to work.


For Reese's Toy Story cake I knew I didn't want to attempt making a specific character.  I also work strictly with buttercream so getting that perfectly smooth fondant look is usually out of the question. 


For the bottom layer, I decided to go with a Buzz theme.  I used a butter knife as a straight edge for my lines and a large decorating tip to make circle indentations.  Then I went back and iced over them.

Bottom layer completed!

The second layer was Woody inspired.  I don't usually make layered cakes so luckily I remembered to use dowels in the two bottom layers (something I learned the hard way on a previous cake) and I put a glob of frosting underneath each layer to adhere them together.