Hello Sweet Friends!
If you read our blog, then you know that I have this thing with kids’ birthday cakes. In fact, the whole reason I bake today is because ten years ago, when I knew nothing about baking, I baked my daughter’s first birthday cake. Looking back, that cake was such a mess, but something about that little gesture of love triggered my interest in baking, forever.
These days, I use birthday cake baking as a chance to teach my children about visualizing your goals in life, and how hard work, team work, and creative problem solving can transform those goals into reality.
Below you will see our youngest daughter’s birthday cake design and actual cake. As you can see in her drawing, she wanted a cat and dog themed cake with a half cat half dog on the top, (because why wouldn’t you want a half cat half dog on your cake)? I guess it was like a Centaur (half man, half horse) but cat and dog? Yikes! Anyways, that was her little vision, so we went with it.
For the cake itself, I used a boxed mix. Normally, I would go with my basic vanilla cake recipe, but I had so much to do last week that I had to go for the mix.
For the fondant, I used our never-fail easy fondant recipe. This time, I tried a new trick with the fondant that made it so much easier to work with. Instead of refrigerating the fondant, I left it at room temperature and covered the cake on the counter. I know that seems strange, but it kept the fondant from sweating, and if you have ever worked with fondant then you know that a damp cake is THE WORST!
Finally, we used candles, a paper cocktail umbrella :), and gum balls for decorations. Instead of gum balls, you can always cut your fondant into the same sized circles and roll each one into a round fondant ball. I just used gum balls to, once again, save time.
To my relief, the final product was the cake my daughter was looking for. I hope she remembers not just the cake itself, but the lesson in visualizing your goals in life, and working towards making them a reality.
We hope you gain a few new ideas from this crazy kids’ birthday cake project. If you have baked a crazy birthday cake, please email photos to me here at piecrustandpixiedust@gmail.com. I love to see (and post) your sweet works of art!!
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