Tablescapes, Home Decor, Thrifting, Cooking

Friday, September 3, 2010

Easy to Please Decorated Cakes

A few years ago when I became a Grandmother, I tried to think of someway I could be a fun Grammie.  One area that was just my cup of tea was decorating birthday cakes.  When my three daughters were young I always made fancy schmancy birthday cakes for them using those formed metal cake pans and a Wilton star frosting tip.  It would take hours to fill in all the sectioned areas with star frosting.

 

  I have now discovered through goggling there are tons of ways to cut a cake to make shapes.  Using candies, cookies and sprinkles (and what kid doesn’t love those?) I could make fun and creative cakes for my three grandsons.  Some still take quite a bit of time and some are quick.  Either way, the boys are thrilled and I know they think of me as their Birthday Cake Grammie knowing lots of love when into their special cakes.

 

Here are a few samples of cakes I’ve made for them:

 

This was the year Sammy loved horseys

Christmas 2008 and Sams 3 birthday 020

At age Five Christian had a Pirate Party.

This one was one of the most time consuming but the little boys were in a trance over the cake.  Christian’s Daddy made the sails.  Notice the brown sugar for sand and the malted milk balls for cannons..life savers for port holes.  You can really get going with all the possibilities!

 

Christian's Pirate Party 5 009

 

Christian's Pirate Cake 002

 

The year of the Magic Party was a head scratcher.  I had to go to the craft store to find props for this cake.  If nothing else works, just use candies for the border!  Gold wrapped coin candies and a special lighted “wand” added to the magical feel.

Christian's 7th birthday and church funday 2009 006

 

This one was precious for Max’s First birthday.  The top for the carousel  was wrapping paper I happened to have on hand.  Animal cookies, straws wrapped in ribbon and colorful malted balls finished off the look.

Baby Max Turns One 002

 

When Max turned two his parents started calling him Curious Max.  That brought to mind a Curious George cake of sorts.  Chocolate donuts formed the ears

There was no good place to put the candles so I made two cupcakes with sprinkles to hold the two candles.

DSCN0871

I have more to show, but that will be another day.  I want to share an easy chocolate cake that I make, doctoring up a cake mix:

 

Basic Buttermilk Devil’s Food Cake

this recipe is from Cake Mix Doctor

1 plain devil’s food cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)

3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup veg. oil

3 lg. eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and grease pans, then dust with flour.

2.  Mix cake mix, cocoa, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in mixing bowl, mix as directed on box.  Bake until cake springs back around 28 to 30 mins.  Remove cakes from pans and cook on wire rack, then invert them again so that the cakes are right side up.

It’s best to freeze the cakes after they cool.  They are much easier to frost this way. Use a cake mix without pudding.  It is much sturdier and will hold together better.

 

Today I am joining Foodie Friday.

9 comments:

Mimi said...

Your are so very creative. Cutes cakes.
Mimi

Jane said...

Very clever cakes! They remind me of the cakes my eldest would make for the Cub Scout Dad and Lad cake bake-off. (These guys won every year!) Your cakes would have, too!
Jane (artfully graced)

Kathleen said...

I just love that monkey! So cute!

Paula@SweetPea said...

You are so creative and talented! If I can get a cake baked and iced, that's about all that will happen. I love all of these cakes and I'll bet that your grandchildren will fondly remember their birthdays and the effort that you made to make their day extra special.

Debbiedoos said...

You are much more creative than I in that category.....I can not bake, and barely can even do a boxed cake well:) I love this idea though, and it is very very special. They will treasure the memory of their very special cakes.

susan said...

I have a feeling that you are fun in lots of ways! This is so adorable---all of them. I have an ancient book ( a freebie that belonged to my mom) that shows lots of adorable cakes. I posted the butterfly a while back. It was no where near as cute as these! What a gift!

Miss Char said...

Donna, you are a cool grammie for sure. As Paula said, your grandchildren will remember their special cakes forever. That monkey is just the cutest thing ever.

Unknown said...

I have just become a "Grammie" for the first time and look forward to being able to decorate cakes for my grandson. Thank you for the ideas.

Room Service ~ Decorating 101 said...

You are quite the artist. I copied the monkey cake, as we are always calling my little grandson "Our little monkey". I may give that one a try myself. Thanks for visiting, if you visit my blog very often, you will find I always go for the "simple".