Here’s part two of my blog post on my healthy obsession with decorating cakes: A year ago last January (2014), I opted for a simple frosted cake for my two-year-old’s birthday since I was still recovering from the craziness of the holidays (I felt like they had chewed me up and spit me out at least a dozen times, do you ever feel that way?). He loves trains so I tried something a little different and literally forced myself not to use fondant. I used the train from the movie, The Little Engine That Could (2011) as my inspiration.
It’s not my favorite cake (it’s a bit too messy for me, I like the clean lines achieved by using fondant) but my son loved it and the candy-filled cars were a big hit with the kids attending the party.
Mmm…a train car full of coal (licorice)
Mmm…candy legos
Mmm…candy rocks
Mmm…chocolate baseballs, soccor balls, basketballs, footballs and tennis balls.
By February, I needed a long break from cakes as I had done too many in such a short amount of time and it was losing its appeal for me. (I couldn’t even eat cake, I was so over it!) With a nice break over the next few months, I recovered and finally felt like doing a cake at the beginning of summer. I’d seen it on Pinterest: a KitKat cake!
Many of you cake enthusiasts have probably seen versions of this cake on Pinterest and around the web, using colorful M&Ms or other candies. The cake was for my husband (the lucky guy) and I incorporated Almond Joy candy pieces on the top, alternating with Rolo caramels.
The cake was a chocolate cake from scratch which just didn’t turn out very well, it might have been the higher elevation but I’ve never had much luck with cake recipes, I go with boxed mixes most of the time which everyone loves. If I make this cake again, I’ll just use brownie mix, yum!
The filling is a coconut and almond sliver mixture (double yum!). With all the candy it was a heavy, heavy cake but super fun to make!
But not all of my creations turn out quite the way I hope they would. Case in point, the cake I did for my son on his first birthday. It was a Rubber Ducky themed party and so I thought I’d try doing my first cake from a mold.
Aw, isn’t that the cutest little ducky? The idea of a 3-D yellow duck cake fit great with the party theme but I encountered one major problem: as I was just about finished piping on the yellow frosting all over the duck, the duck’s head literally rolled right off the body!
I was horrified because serving a decapitated duck birthday cake to guests was NOT my idea of a party (maybe a Halloween party but not a first bday party!). I realized I should have used a denser cake mix like pound cake which would’ve been able to withstand the added weight of the frosting as well as gravity (pesky gravity!). Freezing the cake for a few hours before piping on the frosting would have also given it more support. Live and learn, lol!
So I did what any self-respecting cake maker does: I cut the headless duck’s body in half, laid it on its side, cut the duck’s head in half, set in on its side and wah-lah, my 2-D duck cake was saved! (Thanks for that idea, mom!)
Watch for more of my cake creations in the near future. Coming up: a super fun How To Train Your Dragon 2 cake and a Disney’s Frozen cake featuring everything Elsa.
Jasmine Angell's Blog 