Fancy Rainbow Cake

Although we had parfaits at the Fancy Nancy party (post coming soon)...I wanted to try one of these cakes that I have seen on Pinterest (yes, Pinterest strikes again. I wonder how many blog posts across the wide internets have started with that sentence!)

I thought it would be super fancy!

And it was.

The cake wasn't complicated but it still felt like a challenge.

Two cake mixes, six layers, two batches of frosting...and a whole lotta food coloring. I like gel colors to get the Rainbow Brite effect...

It looked so cool just like this....

 But we frosted it and it looked good too....I had some helpers with the decoration....

 She was so excited for the big reveal...I loved having a big secret....

 Wow!

I know I say this almost every time I make a cake, but I think this one might be the coolest I've ever done. It was completely worth all the work - a smashing success! (which is a fancy way of saying: go me!)

Lizard? Iguana? Gator?

Sam asked for a Lizard Cake for his birthday party this year.

How did we do?

Is it a lizard?

Is it an iguana?

Is it a gator?

Does it really matter?

He loved it.

Why a Snake Cake?

For months, Yael has been asking for a "snake cake" for her birthday.

Why did she want a snake? No clue. Did she have an answer for me? Nope. But she was adamant. I tried really hard to convince her to let me make something else, but I couldn't actually think of another idea...so I figured, why not?

So Yael got a snake cake.

Two bundt cakes, chocolate of course....cut in half and arranged like a snake.

 Frosted in greenish....

 (Marshmallow and chocolate chips for the eyes. A little writing icing for the decoration and a fruit roll-up for the tongue.)

 And Yael wanted to eat the snake's head....so here's her piece of birthday cake:

Almost as cool as this cake and much simpler to make....why did Yael want a snake cake? To make life easy for her mama!

Move Over, Cake Boss - Dragon Cake

My kids (and their parents too!) have all fallen in love with the show Cake Boss. One of the episodes we saw was of a Chinese dragon cake - simply spectacular. I do actually believe that Sam's desire for a "dragon party" stemmed from his desire for a cake like this one.

I'm good. But I'm not that good.

Then again, the internet is my friend. So I discovered this pattern, and it seemed like we could do it.

So here we went...Michael helped with the cutting (he's good at that spatial stuff):

And then I did the assembly and frosting.

And then, voila, an amazing DRAGON cake.
Fire-breathing and everything!
(The fire is fruit roll-ups, by the way...)

Move over, Cake Boss, the Ima is in town.

Dora Cupcakes...

I have made some seriously cute cakes. So when Yael announced that she wanted Dora the Explorer cupcakes, how could I refuse her?

You'd be amazed at what kinds of things you can find out there online...like instructions for these cupcakes!
First, the hair:
(that is dark chocolate candy melt, by the way)

And placed onto frosted cupcakes (hard to get the skin tone right)

Eyes...(white frosting and chocolate chips, with the talented help of Ellie!)

A few pink ones for the extras...

And one happy little birthday girl!

And tasty too!

Magnifying Glass....Cake!?

So what kind of cake would you make for a Secret Agent party? We discussed making binoculars out of chocolate donuts. That sounded delicious but complicated.

Instead, I settled on a magnifying glass cake.

It took 2 boxes of cake mix. Seriously, cake mix is really good stuff.
I used one box of chocolate and one box of sprinkle cake.
I made 2 rounds, 1 square, and 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes were just for kicks so as not to waste the rest of the cake mix. They went to the staff in my office!)

I recently read this piece by Gale Gand in the Chicago Tribune. Turns out, even pastry chefs sometimes get birthday cake stage fright! Anyway, I'm not in any way a trained pastry chef, all I know about frosting cakes comes from trial and error. But she mentioned that it was important to chill the cakes - which I've never done before. It did seem to help but I didn't beat the chocolate frosting enough (or something) and it was stiff and hard to work with. I thought it was just me, until I realized that the vanilla frosting was delightfully spreadable. Oh well....live and learn. It sure tasted yummy!

Came out kinda cool, didn't it? And it was delicious. One of the yummiest cakes I've ever made.

Monster Truck Cake

I always browse around to try and find great looking cakes. I've made a Ninja cake, blues clues cupcakes, lion cupcakes, tie-dye cupcakes (I get a lot of hits on this one, actually)...and a few miscellaneous chocolate frosted things.

I knew I could make a cake that looked like a monster truck.
Started with cake baked into two loaf pans, stacked up after cutting at an angle like a windshield.
(I use cake mix. Go ahead, flame away. Everyone's got their ability limit.)

Covered in bright yellow frosting. I use the frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Yum! (I'm not sure why, since we're not vegan. And I usually sub in butter for the vegan margarine. But it's a good and easy recipe.)

We needed to add some reinforcement to the body of the truck. My husband helped me stick two drinking straws through the cake. This helped hold it together after it started to collapse.

Chocolate-covered donuts served as the wheels. That was a huge hit. Everyone wanted to eat them along with the cake!

The finished product - a big hit!
Sam greeted each of his friends with "come see my truck cake!" which was enough for me!!!

Day 10 of NaBloPoMo, still going strong...I've gotten three days out of this one birthday!