Bundt Cake a la Mario Bros.

This thing was such a labor of love that I don't have any photos of construction (my hands were mostly covered in sticky stuff), but if you are interested in creating a Mario Bros. themed cake, this might be some good inspiration. It wasn't too difficult, I'm just a fondant novice (first timer!) so I had to get the hang of it.
I enjoy "architecting" cakes. This time around, I decided to surprise my son. He asked for just a lemon bundt cake (my favorite recipe HERE). I thought I'd kick it up a notch.

How did I make this?

1) I bought a lovely green porcelain pot at the grocery store that fit perfectly in the center of the bundt cake. I filled it with pressed rice krispie treats, then covered that with Oreo crumbs. I used 8 bamboo skewers sticking out of that, and placed four green plastic straws (two skewers per straw) over the skewers.

2) I pressed rice krispie treats into two plastic rice bowls, then stuck them together to create a sphere. Then I rolled it a little more to make it extra round.

3) I cut out a pie-shaped wedge (sort of pacman style) out of the ball.

4) I covered it with red fondant and smoothed it out as best I could.

5) I filled the mouth area with pink fondant and then fashioned a tongue. To get one layer of fondant to stick to another, brush a VERY little water on the spot and it acts like glue.

6) I rolled out the green fondant and used it to cover the straws and make a couple of big leaves (if you make the leaves out of flat rolled out fondant, you can roll up a bunch of extra into little balls and sort of place them under the leaves to give them some dimension and hold them up a little so they don't look sad and wilted.

7) I cut a bunch of circles out of white fondant, then rolled out a big long tube of white (to go around the mouth). Then I cut out a bunch of triangles for teeth, doubling them up on the bottom half so they would stick up properly.

8) I placed the teeth on the mouth, then covered them with the white tube to shape the white lips.

9) I placed the head onto the skewers (keep that plant stem fairly short and make sure the skewers don't stick up more than a couple inches out of the top of the stem or else (as I found out the hard way) they will stick out the top of the head).

10) After the head is attached, add the spots. (You are getting the benefit of my hindsight wisdom here. I put them on before I attached the head and it was a big disaster that I had to rectify as best I could.)

And that is it! Even though it came out far from perfect, this is one of my favorite cake themes I've ever done. I just think this guy has so much character - just like my now 8yo!

(I had to re-do the stem because the first time it was too long to hold up the head. I actually liked it better shorter.)

Big Auction Dessert

Our elementary school raises most of its yearly PTA funds through a big auction. We live in a fairly high-rent district (we are the poor people here - LOL), so we can't actually afford to attend the auction, but I can definitely help create the stuff that raises the money. This year, I helped with a class auction project, and then I created a special dessert for the Dessert Dash.
I love an excuse to experiment with cakes - especially when I don't have to eat them (calorie-free experimentation!). This time, I decided to combine two of my favorites: chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake. Let me start by warning that this is a many-hours process.
Here's how I did it:
1. I made a chocolate cake from scratch in two 9" cake pans, cooled them and froze them overnight. Before freezing them, I made sure to cut them down a bit so they were both as flat as possible. I used THIS recipe (mostly because I had only cocoa powder, no baking chocolate).
2. I baked a full batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies, making sure to bake a couple of giant ones (more than one in case one came out funky), and the rest fairly small (like a couple inches in diameter). I baked them a little more than I normally would because I wanted the crunch. Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookies are my favorite, recipe HERE.
3. In the morning, I made a 1-1/2 batch of a really fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting. I used THIS one.
4. Place one of the cakes on the plate with a little frosting underneath to cement it down. Cover the top of that cake with a layer of frosting. Chop up a few smaller chocolate chip cookies and arrange them on top of the frosting in a single flat layer. Top that with another layer of frosting.
5. Place the second cake on top of the frosting, and ice the entire cake with most of the rest of the frosting (if there's a little left, put it in an icing bag).
6. While the frosting is setting on the cake (which is nice and easy since the cake is still kind of frozen), make a batch of ganache. Let it cool a bit so it won't melt the frosting. HERE is a recipe for basic ganache.
7. Place ganache in some kind of squeeze bottle (I use the cheap dollar store plastic ketchup/mustard containers). run a line or two of ganache around the very outside edge of the cake so that the ganache runs down the sides. Embellish a little bit by squeezing dots at the edge of the cake where you want more drip. Then cover the entire top of the cake with a layer of ganache. You will have leftover ganache. Do find some other way to enjoy it.
8. Arrange big cookie in the center of the top of the cake, and then embellish as you like with the smaller ones around it. If you had extra frosting like I did, I added some decorative frosting to the top.

Birthday Zombies

The final birthday cake request of the year came from my middle son. He wanted a Plants vs. Zombies cake. Again, I didn't find a lot of (amateur) PvsZ cakes on Pinterest, so I had to go my own route. This one is actually really easy to make as long as you own a set of THESE - no, I didn't make fondant creatures because who has time for that???

So, here are the mechanics of the cake:
1. I made my cake of choice (he wanted lemon with a lemon curd filling) in two standard-sized square cake pans.
2. I frosted the cake with regular ol' white buttercream frosting.
3. I scored a 6x6 checkerboard pattern into the top of the cake lightly with a butter knife.
4. Using two different shades of green frosting, and a leaf/grass frosting tip, I filled in each square in different directions to create the "game board."
5. I took the left-over green frosting and created grass blades on the sides of the cake, just to give it a little extra flair.
6. I placed the figurines in a somewhat believable manner.
Voila! PvsZ cake that took very little time.
Here it is with its thrilled recipient!

Buttercream Creeper Cake

My now NINE-year-old requested a Minecraft Creeper cake this year for his birthday. Since I love making these cakes for my kids, I agreed. I spent some time googling and looking on pinterest for ideas and was really surprised to only find about two Creeper cakes out there, so I was pretty much on my own after looking at how to get the initial shape (I am not into fondant for lots of reasons for these kid-cakes and that was pretty much what I saw).
So, here is what I did:
1. I made my favorite chocolate cake recipe and baked it in two 7x11 Pyrex baking dishes.
2. I turned them out to cool and then on a cutting board, sliced longitudinally about 1" off all the way down both sides of one cake to create the body - removing the rounded edges.
3. With the other cake, I created the head to be a little bit wider than the body, and square. With the rest of that cake, I made two feet, also square.
4. I placed the cakes on a foil-covered cookie sheet and then iced the entire cake with green buttercream frosting (and it was really good buttercream frosting).
5. Using green sugar-sheet, an exacto knife, and a metal ruler (I'm an architect, remember, always at home with a ruler and an exacto knife), I created a whole bunch of 1.25" squares.
If you've never used sugar sheet, it's awesome! You can cut it with an exacto knife or scissors just like paper, then you peel off the plastic backing and stick it right on the cake. It is edible (though not terribly tasty). A great way to accomplish these sorts of designs without using fondant or going nuts with detailed frosting.
6. I placed the squares throughout the body and feet in a somewhat random geometric grid pattern.
7. Using black sugar-sheet, I created three more 1.25" squares for the eyes and part of the mouth. Then I cut a fourth square, cut it in half vertically, and used it to create the sides of the mouth.
8. To clean up the edges of the cake a little bit, I piped a line of frosting around the base of the cake, and a narrower line to outline the different sections of the top of the creeper.
9. I finished it off with a happy birthday message and green candles.
This was actually a pretty easy cake to make compared to that dinosaur I made back in June. And it was a hit!

For my third son's birthday, I hear I am going to be creating a Plants vs. Zombies yard. Wish me luck! Be back in September.

Birthday Dinosaur

We celebrated my youngest's third birthday this weekend. More than anything, he wanted a blue stegosaurus cake. I enjoy a cake challenge (I really do), so I spent a good couple of weeks thinking about it and was really anxious to make it a reality.
I didn't take any photos of the process, mostly because I had food coloring and frosting all over my fingers, but I can describe the process for anyone who might want to recreate it.
Here goes...
The body:
~I started with three round 9" cakes and one 8" square.
~I cut off about 1/3 of each of two round cakes for the body, and stuck them together with a lot of frosting.
~The third round cake I cut out the tail (sort of a J shape, that I then had to tweak when I put the whole thing together).
~Out of the left-overs of that third round, I cut the head - sort of half an oval that was two cake-widths wide.
~I cut the 8" square into 4 equal pieces and then cut one leg out of each quarter.
~There were some left-over chunks, and so I used those to add shape to the head and a couple of triangles to connect the flat tail piece to the hump of the body.
~Then after I put the whole thing together, I frosted the heck out of it.

The spikes:
~I created the shape of one of the spine on a piece of paper. Then I laid it under a large piece of wax paper on the counter.
~I purchased a bag of candy melts at the craft store (in a dark blue color).
~I melted them in a pyrex bowl in the microwave and then poured the contents into a squeeze bottle.
~I traced the shape of the spines and then also filled them in with the melted candy. Moved the paper and traced over again. Repeated a bunch of times. Then I made a few smaller spines.
~I stuck two toothpicks in each of the big spines lollipop-style, so I could easily connect them to the cake later.
~I was having so much fun making stuff with the melted candy in a squeeze bottle that I made a bunch of embellishments that I wasn't sure what I was going to do with.
~After everything dried, I took a knife and trimmed all the spines so they were nice and sharp.

After I frosted the cake, I added all of the spikes and threw on some embellishments. Then, because where the cake meets the plate/cookie sheet/whatever always looks messy, I added some "grass" and "dirt" with the leftover frosting.
This might be my favorite kid-cake that I've ever made. I was really sad when we cut into it. Here is my masterpiece!

The birthday boy loved his cake!
We also had stegosaurus fruit salad. It was a fun party theme!

Boatloads of Chocolate

For my mom's birthday this year, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted - something sort of fruity or something chocolate?  She very emphatically said, "CHOCOLATE!"  So, I googled "rich chocolate cake" and THIS BonAppetit recipe popped up.  Wow.  I decided to try it out.  It was amazing.  I made a couple of minor tweaks to it.  I used dark chocolate instead of bittersweet chocolate in the ganache and since the cake wasn't very tall when baked, I did not cut it horizontally into the four separate pieces described.  Mine just had that one middle layer of ganache and caramel.  It was actually enough, I'm not sure more ganache/caramel layers would have helped.  I also drizzled more of the caramel on the top of the cake. 
The great thing about this cake, if you are a true chocolate-lover, is that it is not very sweet.  It is truly dark, rich chocolatey goodness.  The dark chocolate I used was the 72% 1-lb bricks from Trader Joe's.  I would say it's on the verge of creating a ganache that is too bitter, so I can't imagine using the bittersweet chocolate the recipe calls for.  I think if I were to make this again, I would mix in a bit of milk chocolate just to cut it a little bit.  Pouring caramel over the top definitely helps, though.  Oh!  And I used half-n-half in the ganache instead of heavy cream.  It cuts the fat in half and nobody could even tell.  I highly recommend saving yourself those calories.  Half-n-half is cheaper anyway.
If you are in need of a seriously rich, decadent chocolate cake, this one definitely fits the bill.
...and here is the birthday girl with her cake...(by the way, trying to put nuts on the side of a cake is a challenge, next time I think I'd just put them on the top)

Baking with Cake Molds

For my younger son's first birthday, I decided he should have an airplane-themed party. Even at such a young age, he is fascinated by airplanes. I knew that he must have an airplane-cake. I started searching for airplane cake molds. Apparently airplane cakes are not very popular. Wilton's website suggested using a cross. I didn't want to do that. Finally I found the perfect mold and luckily enough, it came with a free miniature airplane mold as well. Score! I could make a small cake for the birthday-boy and a large cake for everyone else. The larger of the airplane molds was not very big - not big enough to feed the 12 people invited to the party - so I placed it on top of a 12" round. The smaller airplane cake was placed on top of a 6" round.

I don't have pictures of the step-by-step, but I did learn some important things while creating these cakes. Here's what I learned:
~~I decided to use the funfetti cupcake recipe that I posted earlier, in the hopes that it would translate well into cake. This turned out to be a mistake for a couple of reasons. First, I had to make 6 batches of it by the time I was done. Second, it is a butter-based batter which is fine for smallish cupcakes. They cook fast enough to remain moist. When cooking a larger cake, though, it takes longer in the oven and this really dried out the cake. I wish I had used an oil-based batter instead.
~~I ended up having to make the airplanes twice. The first reason was because I filled the cake pans too full. I should have kept it to less than half-full. The 6" pan above was just under half-full and the cake rose to just over the top of the cake pan. In the airplane molds, I had a huge mess. The little airplane's batter spilled over the sides. I couldn't get the larger airplane's batter to cook completely. When I took it out of the oven after far too much time, it was still a soupy mess in the middle.
~~This led me to the important conclusion that when baking large rounds (bigger than 9") or deep molds, to drop the heat down to 325 and let them bake longer and slower.
~~The last, and possibly most critical thing about baking in a mold is to grease, grease, grease! The first airplanes not only had all those other problems, but they also got stuck in the molds. The first time I used Pam. I had too much faith in it. The second time I used a fairly thick layer of shortening AND then floured the pans also. Both airplanes cooked beautifully the second time around and came out of the molds perfectly.

I used regular M&Ms for the windows on the big airplane and mini M&Ms for the windows on the smaller plane. I also used some chocolate non-pareil-like-candies for the engines on the large airplane and regular M&Ms on the smaller plane. I cut graham crackers into triangles, frosted them and used them as the tails. A note on frosting: for these kind of applications, the frosting has to be fairly stiff. In order to create frosting that was not sickeningly sweet, I added 8 ounces of cream cheese to the butter to help it out a little bit. Cream cheese is also a little more firm than butter. It worked well.
In the end, the cake was a little dry and certainly I've had nicer butter cream frosting, but I feel like when baking for an occasion like this, sometimes taste must be sacrificed a bit for the more artistic final product (in other words, it's really hard to bake a gourmet cake in a cake mold). After all, the one-year-old thought it was fantastic!