Mysterious Creatures Birthday Cake

What do you get when you combine an alien, Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster?  A mysterious creature cake, of course!  

I asked my son what he wanted to do this year for his birthday.  My husband and I offered a variety of ideas and what he really wanted was an at-home family and family friend party.  Nothing fancy.  We could do that!

For weeks I asked him what he wanted his cake to be.  He had some very lofty ideas that I wasn't sure I could pull off.  His number one suggestion was the Himalayan mountains.  Seriously?  I told him to think of something else.  A bit defeated, I think, he asked for repeat cakes, like a nature cake or perhaps a Minecraft cake again.  I told him we could do the nature cake if he really wanted to, but I knew he wasn't very excited.

So, the morning before his party I got up early, as I always do, and after a coffee and some quiet time adjusting to the new day, I got on Pinterest.  I had to find something he really liked.  Not finding any great ideas initially, I stopped, closed my eyes and listed in my mind all the things he really likes. Mysterious creatures!  That was it!  Now I had an idea. 

I wasn't sure if I would find any actual cakes but I typed a few different things in the search bar, hopeful.  Lo and behold there was something.  One thing to be exact.  And I knew he would like it!

Usually I leave my son alone in the morning to wake up slowly, but this morning I asked him right away if he would come and see the new cake idea.  He was excited and this is the result!

You can find the original design here.  I made it close to the original with a few adjustments.  And I am not sure who the original designer was because there is only a link to a picture.

I used two boxes of cake mix to make this cake.  The bottom layer I made in a spring form pan using one whole chocolate cake mix.  This time I used Betty Crocker, but any cake mix or homemade cake will do.  The top two layers are Betty Crocker yellow cake.

After cooling the cakes on the rack and trimming off any uneven bits, I put down the chocolate layer and covered it in green frosting.  I got this color with a mix of leaf green and moss green gel food coloring by Wilton.  I then outlined the eyes and nose of the alien with a toothpick and filled them in with black frosting.  Usually I make my own black frosting but this time I bought pre-made black in a squeeze tube because Walmart was out of black gel food coloring.  The tube was so easy and the color was great.  I may do this again in the future.

The recipe I use for all of the frosting except the black, you can find here.  It's the best one for decorating.  It is a very rich recipe and one I use only for special occasions, but it works so well!

As I said, the top two layers are yellow cake.  They were made in pans of two sizes, I think a 10-inch and an 8-inch, but I'm not exactly sure on that.  Either way, one is bigger than the other, but neither is as big as the spring form pan that I used for the bottom layer.

After I frosted the bottom layer and piped in some dots for an outline, I placed the larger yellow cake on top.  Next, I mixed up some of my vanilla buttercream with cocoa powder and brown gel food coloring.  The mix of food coloring and cocoa made just the right color.  I spread it over the entire second layer.

I did not want to put the fur on my Sasquatch yet because I knew it would interfere with frosting the top layer.  So I placed the next layer on top and frosted it with a layer of light blue frosting.  I used Wilton Sky Blue.

I didn't like it because it had no texture and didn't really look like water.  Referring back to the original I saw they piped on waves.  I tried that and hated it.  So I opted to dye some frosting a shade darker and sweep it on to look like waves.

Once the waves were done, I was ready to give the Sasquatch some fur.  I used a grass tip for this and piped it on starting at the base of the blue cake, making long strands down to the alien.  

Next I piped some eyes, a nose and a mouth onto my Sasquatch and piped a border layer at the base of my loch.  I let it sit that way overnight before I added on Nessie.  I didn't want to have the Loch Ness Monster topple over and ruin the whole thing.  

To make the Loch Ness Monster I simply used pre-made fondant from Wilton.  The night before I put it on, I shaped the fondant like play doh and tried my best!  I put some toothpicks in the bottom of the fondant and draped it over a cylinder and hoped it dried properly.  It did.  I think it looks like more of a snake, but it works!  They eyes I made by creating indents and piping on some white and black frosting.  Right before the party I stuck Nessie on using the toothpicks I had inserted into the fondant the night before.

So there you have it.  If you don't know what to make for your 13-year-old who likes mysterious creatures, here you go!  It's really not too hard!

Comment below if you like to make creative cakes for your kids!  Or maybe you have a question.  Leave it below and I'd love to help!


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6 Things To Do With Canned Pumpkin

It's that time of year when the canned pumpkin hits the shelves.  Do yourself a favor and follow the sales.  When you can get it for around $1 a can, stock up!  I have found Aldi carries it for around $1 regular price, but it is only available seasonally.

6 Things To Do With Canned Pumpkin:

1. Cake - Just grab a box of cake mix and add a can of pumpkin.  Mix and bake as usual.  Some people like to add a little water to lighten the consistency.  You can experiment with this but it is not needed.  You can do this with chocolate and no trace of pumpkin is detectable.  My husband who will NOT eat pumpkin flavored food will eat a devil's food cake mix made with a can of pumpkin.  Spice Cake is also a great option, and more of the pumpkin flavor will come through.
2. Pumpkin Bread - You need to try this pumpkin bread.  It's so good!
3. Replace oil in some recipes - In my favorite pumpkin bread recipe, I have subbed extra pumpkin for the oil 1:1.  It changes the consistency, but it's great.  I've had other people try it and it passes the test! I haven't tried this in other recipes, but I bet in most quick breads it would work.  I might have to try pumpkin banana bread, replacing the oil with pumpkin.  I wonder if the pumpkin flavor would be masked by the banana?  My husband would be a good judge on this.
4. Dog Treats - I haven't tried this one yet but I definitely plan to.  You can make dog treats using pumpkin and a few kitchen staples.  Here is a link one one recipe.  And here's another.
5. Pumpkin Pie - This is the "duh" one on the list.  But really.  This is the best pumpkin pie I have ever had.  My mom found the recipe many years ago when she was making a pie for Thanksgiving.  She didn't have the sweetened condensed milk that many recipes call for.  So she went on the hunt to find something using regular milk.  Now this is before the internet, so I'm not sure how long the hunt took, but she found a treasure.  Here's a link to the recipe.
6. Pumpkin Butter - I came across this recipe during my 30 Days 30 Recipes Challenge.  It was from a Weight Watchers list, but I'm telling you it does not taste diet-y in the least!  Give it a try and I'm sure if you like pumpkin, you'll like this butter.

Everything on this list that canned pumpkin is used for, you can also sub your own cooked pumpkin.  Canned pumpkin is just so easy and if you get it on sale, relatively cheap.

If you haven't checked it out yet, check out The Ultimate Blog Challenge on Facebook.  

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Shopkins Birthday Cake

I don't know about your kids, but my daughter loves her Shopkins!  She attended a birthday party at a friend's house earlier in the year with a Shopkins theme and when it came time for her birthday, she just had to have the same!  I was happy to oblige.

My kids were a little late to the Shopkins game, but they've been collecting them for a while now.  I have to admit, the little figurines are quite cute.  When they first started collecting them it was sometimes difficult to find them in stock.  But now, after a year or so my kids have friends giving them their old ones.  Works for me!

Back to the party planning!

Once we had a theme we had to decide on a cake.  It had to reasonably meet my daughter's expectations and be within my skill set.  My daughter and I searched the internet for a while, trying to come up with a good idea.

We saw some simple cakes using the actual toys as decoration.  Not a bad idea.  My daughter wasn't interested in that style.  There were other elaborate cakes with so much detail I was not willing to even try.  Then one night while I was saying goodnight to my daughter, we looked at her Shopkins poster and saw Cheeky Chocolate.  "What about that one?"  I asked her.  She liked it!  The rest is history.

There are some errors in the design, but overall I think it turned out cute and resembles Cheeky Chocolate quite nicely.


Cheeky Chocolate Cake

Ingredients/materials:

Best Buttercream Icing
Wilton gel food color in Sky Blue
Wilton gel food color in Black
Wilton gel food color in Brown (optional)
Cocoa
2 box cake of choice
2 - 9x13 pans
frosting spreader
3-4 piping bags
writing tip(s)

Instructions:

Follow the instructions on your box cake mix and pour each cake into a 9x13 pan.

While the cake is cooking, mix up a batch of the Best Buttercream Icing.  Put 1/3 of the mixed frosting aside in a bowl and leave it white.  Cover.  Place 1/3 in another bowl, put aside and cover.  Leave last third of frosting in the mixer and very slowly add sky blue until you reach your desired color.  Cover and put aside.

To one of your bowls of white frosting, add a few tablespoons of cocoa.  You may need to add a small amount of cream to fix the consistency.  DO NOT mix in any black food coloring yet.  Add brown food color if necessary to get desired color.  Cover.

Once the cake has cooled, check if it is even.  If not, trim as needed.  Place one cake on desired tray then top lightly with white frosting.  Place the second cake on top of the frosting.  No frosting should be oozing out the edges.

Next, you will use the chocolate brown frosting to make the exposed chocolate bar.  Spread the frosting smoothly over the top of the cake where the chocolate bar should be.  Wipe off the frosting knife and gently drag it sideways to make 8 chocolate squares.  Then add some chocolate frosting to a piping bag fitted with a writing tip.  Make small hearts in each chocolate square.

TIP:  To make your frosting smooth, dip a clean frosting spreader in warm water, remove from water and shake off excess.  Use knife to smooth frosting before it hardens.  

Now you will take your blue frosting and spread it over the remainder of the cake.

After the blue is spread smoothly, take some of your white frosting and add it to a clean piping bag equipped with a writing tip.  Outline a white wrapper (look at picture for shape) bordering the brown and blue.  Then take your spreader or a smaller knife and fill the outline with white frosting.

Once the wrapper is complete, find a round template such as a glass and make a light mark where the eyes should go.  Outline the circle in white and fill in with white frosting.  Do the same for the inner brown part of the eye, using a smaller circle template.  The nose and inside of the mouth are also brown.

Now you will make your black frosting.  Take your chocolate frosting and mix in black food coloring until you achieve your desired color.  You will not get a good black without using chocolate frosting.  The amount of food coloring you would need would leave you with a very bitter frosting.  Add the frosting to a clean piping bag equipped with a writing tip and add the last details you see in the picture above.

There you have it!  Cheeky Chocolate.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this cute cake!  Let me know in the comments below if you've ever made a Shopkins cake or if you try this one out.


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Easter Eats

If you're looking for ideas for your Easter feast, look no further!

The first thing we make every year is hard boiled and dyed eggs.  The kids love it.  I'm not sure they'll ever really grow tired of it.  I never have!  As the years go on the designs get more elaborate and the hands stay cleaner, but the tradition remains the same.

Typically we only hide our plastic eggs, so we have a bunch of hard-boiled eggs available for eating on Easter morning.  These make a quick and easy breakfast for everyone!

Here are some eggs we've decorated in the past.  I do recommend rinsing off the sparkles if you use those!

Sparkly Eggs

Along with your hard boiled eggs for protein, you can't go wrong with a cinnamon treat!  This is a recipe for the absolute best homemade cinnamon buns I've had.  Part of the trick is using the bread machine to make the dough.  It kneads it perfectly and lets the dough rise at the ideal temperature.  The result is smooth, fluffy dough that puffs up just right.  You'll want to try these for sure!

Cinnamon Buns for the Bread Machine

Once it's time for lunch, you'll want to use up some more of those hard boiled eggs.  One of our favorite ways to prepare them is deviled eggs.  My husband can down half a dozen without trying!  Check out this cute version I made inspired by a magazine article.  They are adorable, don't you think?

Deviled Chicks

For lunch we traditionally have ham and potatoes.  I love scalloped, but twice-baked and mashed are also great!  I usually try to get a spiral ham if it's on sale, but sometimes I get the whole, unsliced ham and that's is quite delicious as well.  Typically I skip the glaze because I find the ham just right without it.  If I'm making the whole ham I like to top it with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries. If you do this, be sure and save some of the pineapples and cherries for the recipe below!

For dessert, one of my favorites is pineapple upside down cake.  It's an older recipe and my mom used to make it often for Easter when we were kids.  Follow this link to for a most delicious treat!

If you're not in a sugar coma by this point, check out these adorable cupcakes and cake.  They were, like the deviled chicks, inspired by a magazine article.  I found the marshmallow bunnies while I was out shopping and I thought they would be adorable on these grassy green cakes.  I have no separate post or recipe about the cupcakes, I just thought they were too cute not to include!

To make the cake, just bake up your favorite box mix or other favorite cake recipe.  Pour half into an oven-safe bowl and the remaining into a cupcake tin with liners.  Bake as directed.  Frost with any icing you like, then top with  *grass and decorations.   Here's a recipe for icing if you need it.

*To make the grass, empty a bag of coconut into a bowl and squeeze in a few drops of food color.  Mix until color is evenly distributed.  Voila!  Grass.

The jelly beans, by the way, are Starburst jelly beans, my fave!

Do you have any favorite Easter recipes or traditions?  Comment below to share.


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Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This is a traditional Easter recipe from my mother's collection.  I like my mom's recipe but I tweaked it slightly in order to omit the shortening and add a little more pineapple tang.  The original recipe is below and my modifications are in the parentheses.  Enjoy this old fashioned favorite!


Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:
  
1/4 cup butter
5 canned pineapple slices, drained and halved
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening (sub coconut oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
9 maraschino cherries, drained (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk (sub pineapple juice from can)

Melt butter in 9-inch round cake pan.  Brush sides with butter.  Add brown sugar to butter.  Place over low heat on stove and stir until blended and remove from heat.  Arrange pineapple halves in a pinwheel pattern on top of sugar mixture.  Place cherries in center of pineapple slices.  In a bowl, cream white sugar, salt and shortening (or coconut oil).  Beat in eggs one at a time until fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Mix together flour and baking powder.  Add alternately with milk (or pineapple juice) to creamed mixture. Pour batter over pineapples.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Turn onto a serving plate immediately.  Serve with with whipped cream.

Here's the cake I made for Easter without maraschino cherries.  Also, I made it square because my round pan was packed due to us moving!  I'm always ready to improvise.  

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Minecraft Birthday Party

Like many kids, my son LOVES Minecraft.  This year we even started a Minecraft Club at our house.  It was a huge hit and the kids are asking if we are going to do it again this fall.

So, when my son turned 11, we just had to do a Minecraft-themed birthday party.  This year I really got my kids involved in helping with the party preparations.  They had a ton of fun!

This "cake block" cake was a request of my son.  He thought it would be neat if we actually ate the same sort of cake they eat on the game.  My plan was to make a chocolate cake with with the recipe on the back of the can of Hershey cocoa, but my son really wanted vanilla.  So I went with a simple Duncan Hines box mix.  We used two boxes for this cake.  I poured the batter from one full box into a 9x9 square pan and baked it.  I then mixed the other box and did the same.  There is a layer of frosting between the two cakes.

For the frosting I used buttercream frosting colored with food coloring.  For the bottom layer, in addition to food coloring, I added cocoa to achieve the brown color.  Check out this post for a great buttercream recipe!

These are some creeper and snow golem head marshmallows on sticks.  We used the rectangular s'mores marshmallows, but regular marshmallows could also be used.  To achieve the green color, my son dipped marshmallows into a cup of water dyed with green food color.  A tip I would recommend is to stand them up to dry by poking the sticks into a box or piece of styrofoam.  They take about 10-15 minutes to dry.  Ours got a little overlapped when we layered them on a plate and the color came off in a couple places.  Still not too shabby!  The faces were made with buttercream frosting piped on with a writing tip.

I wasn't going to do any planned games this year, just let the kids have fun playing together and swimming in the pool.  But my son really wanted to do at least one game.  This is what he came up with.  He made an Enderman out of construction paper and we made the grass blocks together.  We called it Pin the Grass Block on the Enderman Hand.  It's a bit of a tongue twister!  The kids enjoyed it and he was very proud of himself!

What's a Minecraft party without a Nether Portal?  This was one of the kids' favorite parts.  We all worked on this one together.  The kids and I hung the paper around the portal, my husband drew the sign and he and the kids hung the streamers.  My daughter asked for days before the party how long it would be until we could hang this up.

It's a Snow Golem.  I'm not sure about the pumpkin head, but it's in the game so I went with it.

Here is a picture of the ghast my son created.  We started off by covering a box with white paper and then he drew on the face and taped streamers on the bottom.  It was so great to see the excitement in his eyes when we made all these things together.  He was so happy!

This is the sign we had from our Minecraft Club earlier this year.  My son made it for the most part, but I helped him finish things up as they got tedious. He was happy that we got to re-use it for his party.

So there you have it!  This Minecraft party was not magazine-ready by any means, but my kids enjoyed helping out so much!  I hope it gives you some ideas for your next Minecraft themed party.

To see some of the places I got inspiration, check out my "Party" Pinterest page!



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The Best Buttercream Icing

Image found here

In order to decorate deliciously pretty cakes, you need the perfect buttercream.  This is a recipe my mom gave me and I use it every time I decorate a cake with roses or other details.  It tastes great, is easy to work with and a cinch to color.  Here's the recipe!

The Best Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

2 cups shortening
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 cups powdered sugar (one 2-lb bag)
1/2 cup (one stick) softened butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat shortening until smooth.  Add butter and cream until fluffy.  Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add sugar slowly and continue mixing.  Slowly add remaining cream until right consistency is reached.

Makes enough to frost a 9-inch 4 layer cake or a large cake made with two cake mixes.

A cake I frosted with this recipe.

Another cake frosted with The Best Buttercream Icing.

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Recipe - Lemon Blueberry Cake

Lemon Blueberry Cake

This recipe was requested after I brought it to a potluck party. It's modified from a recipe in my mom's cookbook. The glaze is a halved recipe from allrecipes.com.

Lemon Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:

1 box lemon cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
1 cup blueberries

Barbie Cake

My daughter wanted to have a Barbie theme for her birthday party this year.  Granted, we were having it at the local bowling alley, but a girl's gotta have decorations, right?  Well, we went to Walmart and got the necessary paper goods and picked up a couple boxes of cake mix.  I wasn't going to go all out this year with the cake. I was going to keep it simple and just frost it with colors that coordinated with the plates and napkins. 

Well, after talking to a friend of mine, Janna, I was convinced it would be easy to do a simple Barbie-themed cake.  She looked up a picture of the Barbie logo online and I took a peek.  From looking at it, I guessed it wouldn't be too difficult.

Cake and Roses

This is a cake I recently made for my friend, Meagan, who is having a baby.  Another friend, Amy, showed me how to make roses and since then I've liked to add them to most cakes I make. As I've found, roses cover a host of mistakes in the frosting.

I saw the idea to do a half moon shape on the top with roses on some website after doing a "google" search for ideas on cake decorating.