Let Them Eat Cake!

I love cake.  I love baking cakes for the E's which is why she got 3 for turning 3!  (Well, the Angry Birds cake was for Mr.E who turned the ripe age of 6 months in a few days after MissE's party) It's time consuming, yes, but it's also full of love.

My biggest fear of making cakes is having it pop up on Cake Wrecks!    So I try to allow time for practice-runs.

Team Umizoomi Cake
Team Umizoomi is all the rage in the toddler-set.  It's a pre-school television show that focuses on math concepts like counting, shapes, patterns to name a few.  The 'team' are the tiniest superheroes , a girl named Milli, her brother Geo and their robot friend, Bot.  We watch Team Umizoomi on loop during TV time (MUCH better than Dora The Explorer), so what better for MissE's birthday than a Team Umizoomi cake!
Trial 1... or maybe it was 2: I found a 'cake decorating like the pro's' tutorial to create buttercream masterpieces, again because I hate fondant.  So I found images of Milli, Geo and Bot (enlarged) to print.  I then made my buttercream frosting in Team Unizoomi colours.  I got out my baking paper to lay over my images and prepared to pipe the tiny superheroes.  Maybe that's where my problems lay???  It was impossible, even using my frosting pen!  So in the bin it went... and out came the fondant.

I hate fondant so I try not to use too much of it (unfortunately I had to use it for the Angry Bird cake) but it's so fabulous to decorate with.  If I must use it, I try to use it for as few elements of the cake as possible and remove it before eating/ serving.

It was surprisingly easy with fondant but due to my Cake Wreck phobia, I wasn't convinced Team Umizoomi were to up to par.  After showing Mr.H and him saying "What is it?" Ha ha, not funny!  I brought in the Big Gun, MissE.  She got a big smile on her face and said "That's Team Umizoomi!  It's Milli, Geo and Bot!"  Whew!  THEN, thanks to the humid Australian climate, my little superheroes started to crack... then Geo's hand fell off... then Bot's satellite hat.  D'oh!

Bot

Milli and Geo

Trial 3: A change of tactic.  I thought, maybe each character was too small and delicate, so I would just make faces especially since this cake would only need to serve 5 adults and 3 toddlers.  I also printed out Wilton's Fondant Tips as I worked.

Team Umizoomi

Hello Kitty Cake

I love the rainbow layer cake that is sweeping the children's party set (it hasn't become too popular in Australia yet).  It looks so gorgeous when you take that first slice out of the cake.  I love the "ooh's!"

I used Martha Stewart's Vanilla Cake recipe (you can also use a cake mix box, as long as it's for white or vanilla cake).  After a practice run at Christmas, I didn't like how small the layers were when dividing 2.5 cups of batter into thirds in a 9 inch round tin, so I divided it into 2 layers which meant a whole lot of cake batter and a longer time waiting for cakes to bake.

Cake batter batch 1

I kept one layer white so I left it untouched.  Layer 2, I put mixed in 1/4 teaspoon of red food colouring.  Layer 3, I increased the food colouring to 1/2 teaspoon and so on for the remaining layers.

After cooling/ resting the cakes, I levelled it with a knife.  No Leaning Tower cakes here!  I never know what to do with my cake 'peaks' so I throw them away.  It wasn't until I had thrown away my last 2 'peaks' that I thought to use it for cake pops.  Darn!

The layers: 6 cake and 5 frosting

I used my pre-made Buttercream Frosting (I've seen a few bakers also colour the frosting but I prefer the white)  to begin stacking the cake beginning with the white cake and increasing in colour.  Make sure you are layering your cake correctly!  During my practice run, I layered my white cake on top but that's what practice is for!  I found that as I removed my cake from the round tin, I rested it on baking paper that I labelled with the colour to help me remember.

A short rewind to the day before, I mentioned above that I used pre-made Buttercream Frosting.  I made this a few days ahead when MissE was at daycare and MrE was napping.  After making the frosting, I traced an outline of my round tin and filled it with a good layer of frosting then put it in the freezer until I was ready to assemble my cake.  By the way, you can also bake and freeze the cake too.  However, I prefer fresh cakes so I spent all of Saturday baking.

'Crumb layer'

Okay, back to the now layered cake.  I learned this from the eHow pro's to apply a 'crumb layer' of frosting.  This is diluted (tablespoon by tablespoon with water) buttercream frosting.  After applying a thin layer all over the cake, place it in the fridge or freezer until the frosting sets.  This crumb layer should catch all your crumbs so that your next coat of frosting is smooth.  Yes, it's not pretty.

After the 'crumb layer' has set, apply your frosting.  If it's still not smooth enough, I dip my metal icing spatula in hot water to go over the frosting until smooth.  This was a job that Mr.H enjoyed doing ("It's like rendering!")

I coloured white fondant and used alphabet cookie cutters to spell out MissE's name.

Hello Kitty

This is the nitty gritty.  It's the step I tried to not think about.  After thinking about how to create Hello Kitty's head, I saw online that you can use rice crispy treats.  I kept seeing RCT and thinking, "what is that?" Too much alphabet soup online these days!  Genius!  I hadn't made RCT in many years so it took a bit to work it into the Hello Kitty shape.  I waited until it had cooled (yes, I know you would think that is obvious) and used spray oil on my hands.  I returned to it every few minutes to repack then covered and refrigerated overnight.  I then used several layers of fondant to cover the shape and to form eyes and signature hair bow.

Rice Crispie Treat formed Hello Kitty's head

Hello Kitty Cake

This cake was a hit... and we are feasting on the leftovers with many offers to help finish it.  My one "in hindsight" moment occurred 30 minutes after slicing it open: it did in fact become the Leaning Tower of Pisa and collapsed (onto the wall I might add) as I was running towards it!  Next time: wooden skewers.  They are a good thing.

Angry Birds Cake

The cake is modelled off a cake I had 'Pinned' on Pinterest.

This cake is chocolate and again, one of Ms.Martha's recipes (One Bowl Chocolate Cake).  I hired the cake tin from Cake Decorating Central (3D Sports Ball) to keep costs low.  Cake tins are so expensive!  However because it was borrowed I did not have a chance to practice it so at 11pm the night before the party, I was ready to throw it in the garbage before Mr.H saved the day (night).

The cake

Red Bird was first coated in red buttercream frosting however I was tired and knew that I would not have the patience to smooth the buttercream oh-so-perfectly so I wiped that off and used coloured marzipan (after running out of fondant after the cake decorating store had closed, and only finding marzipan at the local grocery store).  His eyebrows and eyes were done by piping frosting onto wax paper and freezing (Note: the store bought frosting doesn't freeze so it wasn't as neat as I would of liked!) .  His beaks is again RCT and orange marzipan.  Again, I used coloured fondant and alphabet cookie cutters to spell out Mr.E's name.