Pizza anyone?

About a year and a half ago, I made hamburger "cakes" for my oldest son's birthday.  Going on that same food theme, we decided to make a pizza "cake" for my middle son's 10th birthday.  I'm really happy with how this turned out...even though I had made it myself and knew it wasn't real, every time I caught sight of it I had to laugh at how real it looked!

The "crust" was made with a big chocolate chip cookie...not the most convincing crust, but we had to compromise for taste.  The "sauce" is just red frosting and the "cheese" is Wilton Candy Melts.  I made the "pepperoni" out of fondant.  First, I dyed the fondant a pinkish color, cut into circles and curled up the edges before laying them out to dry.  Once they were dry, I painted them dark orange, bronze and then brown using airbrush colors.  I then blotted them to give them a mottled look like cooked pepperoni.  

This was a fun "cake" to make and it tasted really good too!!  I can definitely see doing this one again!

Sand Pails

We took a vacation to the beach in California the week before my son's 5 birthday so we decided on a beach theme this year.

These were a lot of work, but fun to do as they weren't my typical cakes.  As he has wheat/egg allergies, I decided to make them out of chocolate Rice Krispie Treats.  Plus, I thought they would be sturdier as well.  I searched online for a mold I could use for the pails and ended up finding a large muffin tin in Michaels that worked perfect!

For most of the shells/sea creatures, I bought a chocolate mold and used fondant in the mold.  The shell in the top left was made by hand.  I then dusted everything in gold and silver luster dust.  The "sand" is Gluten Free graham cracker crumbs (not easy to find in stores, but I found them on Amazon).  

I made 12 of them in total in 6 different colors...more than enough for every kid to have 1.  They were a great hit at my son's water party!!

Gluten Free Strawberry Cake

This cake I made for my youngest's 4th birthday.  He is allergic to wheat, so I'm always looking for new recipes to try.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 (3 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
• 1 (16 ounce) container frozen strawberries with sugar, thawed
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

• 1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
  2. Pour into two greased 9-inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (40 minutes for a 9x13 pan; 20 minutes for cupcakes).

Lemon Cake

This cake does take a bit of preparation time, but it has really nice flavor and is worth the extra effort!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. butter
• 2 c. sugar
• Grated rind of 1 lemon
• 3 lg. eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 3 1/2 c. sifted cake flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:

Cream butter, sugar and lemon rind together. Beat egg yolks until thick; add to the creamed mixture. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together several times. Add alternately to the creamed mixture with the milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in the egg whites, beaten stiff but not dry. Bake in 4 (7 inch) or 3 (8 inch) greased layer pans. Bake in moderately hot oven about 25 minutes or until they spring back lightly from the touch in the center.

Raspberry Cake...oh so yummy!!!!

I thought I was definitely a chocolate cake person, until I made this cake one day for a wedding cake.  It was absolutely delicious!!  It's now one of my favorite recipes!

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
• 1 (3 ounce) package raspberry gelatin
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup hot water
• FROSTING:
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine dry cake mix and gelatin powder. Add raspberries with juice, eggs, oil and water. Beat until well blended. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.

FC Barcelona Jersey - Soccer shirt cake

 My now 12 year old is a HUGE soccer fan and wanted me to make him a jersey from one of his favorite teams.  

After researching some cakes online and looking at pictures of the jersey, this is what I came up with.  I didn't really want to make a jersey shaped cake, but was looking for something a little bit different.

To make the jersey, I rolled out a rectangular piece of fondant and then rolled over a small bit of both long sides.  I then put a small slice of cake that I had cut off the top of cake to level it and placed it on the top half of the rectangle.  Then, I flipped over the bottom half as if I was folding a shirt.  I then made the sleeves and tucked them in between the shirt piece.  After I had it as I wanted it, I "glued" the shirt shut to hold it in place.  

Then I broke out my airbrush to paint the shirt.  I used wax paper to mark off an area for the red and after that was done, I held the paper over the red area to spray the blue.  In order to get the speckled look on the red with the blue, I used a wire strainer to spray through.

After that had all dried, I made the edges to go around the neck and arms, along with the decorations for the front.  The emblem is made from both colored fondant and edible color markers.

The cake was a hit at his party, especially since the boys knew what jersey it was without me telling them!