Below are pictures of each birthday cake I've made for my kiddos. Tim and I strive to make the kids feel extra special on their birthdays, and making them a one-of-a-kind cake is my part.
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| This is Titus' 1st birthday cake. The layers were chocolate and funfetti. The bottom layer was a 10x2" round cake, the middle layer was an 8x2" round cake, and the top layer was a 6x2" round cake. Each layer was cut and filled with frosting, then covered with a crumb coat. This was also my first attempt at making marshmallow fondant (MMF). What a mess, and honestly, it wasn't very tasty. I colored each batch of fondant, rolled it and fit it over the layers. After supporting the layers and stacking the cakes, I embellished it with cutout fondant stars, then rolled fondant into balls and placed it around each layer. I was SO proud of my first cake. Titus was only 1 year old, but I just knew it was the best cake he'd ever seen. :) |
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| By the time Titus was 2 years old, he was heavily into Veggie Tales. I mean, so much that we couldn't go a couple hours without watching his favorite video..."Dave and the Giant Pickle". The infatuation with the Giant Pickle was so great that we knew it would make his perfect 2nd birthday cake. I had just had my second baby a month and a half before Titus' birthday, and I wasn't in the mood to make a big tiered cake. Cupcakes were the answer! The cupcake flavors were chocolate and funfetti (I don't even like funfetti - not sure why I was using it so much!), then frosted with white canned frosting that I colored. Even though I forgot to put a mouth on the Giant Pickle, I thought he turned out pretty good. He's got his boxing shorts on and his boxing gloves are up and ready to fight! Jr. Asparagas is in the corner as Dave. What a cutie! This was a pain to transport (as you can see, my boards came apart and shifted the cupcakes) during our Wisconsin winter, but it sure was easy to serve and clean up! |
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| A closer look at Dave. CUTE! I could just eat him up...literally. |
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| This isn't a cake, but I had to include it. My husband, Tim, made this pinata for the "Dave and the Giant Pickle" themed party. He rolled a tube of tagboard for the body, then had balloons at the top and bottom to round things out. He glued crepe paper over the entire figure, then used a black marker to add eyes and a mouth. Since Veggie Tales characters don't have limbs, the boxing gloves had to be added directly to the Giant Pickle's body. We didn't use this as a pinata, and actually, it didn't even have candy inside. We set the Giant Pickle on a chair and gave the kids bean bags to throw at him. They were trying to defeat the giant by knocking him over. Then we gave each kid a goodie bag filled with treats. What fun! |
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| This is Princess Mia's first birthday cake. It took me 7 hours from the start of baking the cakes to the last drop of decorating. Unfortunately, those 7 hours were from 7pm - 2am on a Saturday night, and I had church the next morning! I couldn't let my baby girl down, though. :) This was my first attempt at a "topsy-turvy" cake. You cut the layers in such a way that it gives the illusion that it's going to fall over. I reall really liked making this cake...and I didn't use funfetti this year! lol The layers were as follows: bottom = two 10x2" round cakes stacked with buttercream between the layers; middle = two 8x2" rounds layered with buttercream; top = two 6x2" rounds layered with buttercream. I cut the layers diagonally so it would slope, and for the middle layer, I used what I cut off, flipped it around, and made a more dramatic edge. I won't go into too much detail about the assembly...maybe on another blog. I added the crumb coat to the cakes and let it dry. Then I colored the buttercream and frosted the cakes. These pictures were done in yellowy lighting - so disappointing. The bottom and top layers were purple, and the middle layer was pink. I used the leftover white buttercream to add decorations to the layers. At this point, it was 1:30am and I was tired. I used too small of a piping tip on the bottom layer, and decided to go back over it with something bigger. |
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| Another look at the princess topsy-turvy cake. |
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| Looking down on the cake. I used a crown cookie cutter as my guide for the frosting crown. I piped Mia's name underneath. Afterall, she IS the princess! Oh, and the cake tasted so goooooood!! |
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| This is Titus' 3rd birthday cake. He wanted a football cake, then later wanted a baseball cake including a basketball. Such demands for a soon-to-be 3-year old! And being the best mommy in the world, I wanted to meet those demands. The football was the most important, so I made that the biggest. To give you an idea of size, the football was made from a 8x11" cake pan, then trimmed. The ends were made from a 6x2" round cake and trimmed. The football was a stacked cake and had homemade buttercream filling. The basketball was made from two 8x2" round cakes, stacked and layered with buttercream. The baseball was a giant rice cereal treat, maybe a little bigger than a softball. I whipped up a small batch of MMF to cover it, then colored some buttercream red and piped the stiching. Tim made the lines for the basketball and football. I was using a foam project board as the base, which got quite marked up with colored frosting, so it was quickly covered with green frosting "grass". Titus loved this cake. The first thing he did after we sang Happy Birthday was grab the baseball and tear into it. :) |
I'm not sure what I'll do for this year's birthdays. Baby #3 is due just four days from Mia's 2nd birthday, then Titus' 4th birthday is a month and a half later. Ugh. What have I gotten myself into?! Whatever the creation may be, it's going to be unique, made with love from my kiddos' favorite mommy.
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