Tiki Man Cake

Last minute cake ideas usually do NOT turn out well. However, this one most certainly did. My son, now 17, decided he wanted to have several friends over for a bonfire for his birthday. No problem! We had the fire pit, could order pizzas, have a cooler full of drinks...but what about the cake? Well, the bonfire led to the Tiki idea. Tiki torches, oil lamps, etc (no grass skirts, though).

This guy was made from a 13x9"cake (I prefer using my Air Bake pan). Once the cake was baked, he took under an hour to decorate. I've posted some photos of the decorating process below.

1. Once your cake has baked and cooled, round it out by trimming the upper edges forming the cake into a half log shape. Place it on your serving board. (I usually just use my cake carrier for this since that's it's final resting spot)
2. Ice the cake completely with chocolate icing. You don't have to worry too much about getting icing on your surface. It will be covered up later. Keep your strokes going vertical - to somewhat resemble tree bark.
3. Use a toothpick, knife, chopstick or whatever you have handy to trace the design of your tiki man's face. Don't worry about adding details at this point. You just want to be sure you have the basic design centered on the cake surface.
4. Now comes the fun part - coloring it in! Try to stay in the lines. Fill in all your base colors first, then do your outlining. The icing colors were made with a couple cans of vanilla icing and neon food coloring.
5. The teeth were made with marshmallow fondant. I rolled out a sheet, cut out 2 strips and indented them to look like teeth.
6. Continue coloring in the areas and add details (like the zig-zagging and the headband feathers).

The final touch was the nose - made of tootsie rolls. The tootsie rolls (about 6 minis) were warmed in the microwave and molded into 3 balls (2 small and one large). The large ball was rolled into a cone shape and the smaller balls were attached to either side.

The entire base of the cake was surrounded with graham cracker crumbs to resemble sand.
And there you have it! A quick, easy (and Yummy) last minute Tiki Man birthday cake!

Nintendo Super Mario Mushroom Cake

Having kids usually means having video games and having video games usually means "Super Mario" and "Nintendo" are common household words. So it came as no suprise when my son came up to me before his 10th birthday, showed me his little mushroom shaped tin of sour candies, and told me "This is what I want my birthday cake to be!" Noooo Problem! What better use of my Betty Crocker Bake N' Fill pan than a mushroom!

Once my cake was baked and cooled, placed it on a round cake board (cut down to size) and set it on top of a wedding cake stand. I coated the cake in a (generous) layer of icing and smoothed marshmallow fondant over the top, tucking it in underneath.

The green was painted on with a mixture of food coloring gel and vanilla extract. The 5 large round circles were cut out of marshmallow fondant and placed on the cake.

To cover the wedding cake tower, I cut out a strip of paper, drew the eyes on it, and surrounded the base of the cake, taping it closed.

Unicorn Cake

Tia has a thing for unicorns this year. Unicorn this and unicorn that. "Find a story about unicorns!" Guess what...she wanted a UNICORN CAKE! So she got one...

I knew I didn't want to end up with a unicorn with a non-existent muzzle like the Prancing Pony Cake, but I needn't have worried. I found inspiration in the party decor!

I scanned the catalog page, enlarged it, and used the picture as a template for cutting out the unicorn's head.

The unicorn cake is a 2 layer cake carved from a single 9x13 cake (I used Pillsbury white cake mix). This could also be turned into a horse cake - simply leave off the horn!

1. I first cut out the head, keeping the cut out section as far to one side as possible (since the remaining cake would form the neck and base, supporting the head). The ear should also be part of this piece. The head piece was then carved and rounded to resemble a unicorn head. It doesn't need to be very detailed. Icing will help to round out most of the cut edges and can also be used to add details later.
2. With the remaining cake, shape the neck area. You need to be sure to keep a large enough piece of cake to go beneath the head, supporting it and creating a 2-layer cake section. I placed the head template on the cake and cut around it adding the neck as I went so the top and left sides of the cake would match the head piece perfectly.
3. You can't see it in the photo, but I also made a second ear part of this base piece. It sits more forward on the head than the first ear and helps to support the horn.
4. Place the base piece onto your serving plate and cover completely with icing. I used canned Pillsbury vanilla icing.
5. Place the head piece on top of the base piece and arrange it toward the top left of the cake aligning the top of the head and the left side of the head.
6. Ice the top layer and all the sides. Your cake should now be completely covered in icing. If you like, you can make a icing border along the base. It's only needed at the bottom of the neck and along the left side of the cake. The rest will be covered in icing from the mane.
7. Color a can of vanilla icing pink. Place it in a decorating bag with a large star tip and pipe on the mane. Start at the base of the cake and work your way up. Bring the mane up over the forehead in curls.
8. Use a small butter knife or spatula to spread a little icing in the ear.
9. I drew on the eye with black decorating gel and painted in the iris with blue food coloring gel (slightly watered down).
10. For the nose, I made an indent in the icing and the same blue color used on the eye was swiped on with a paintbrush just at the top of the nostril.
11. The unicorn's horn was made from marshmallow fondant. I mixed up a batch, rolled it into a long rope with a tapered end and twisted it around half of a bamboo skewer. Start at the end of the skewer with the tapered end and twist keeping the fondant tightly wrapped until you run out of fondant or get to the middle of the skewer - whichever comes first. The entire horn was then dusted with silver Pearl Dust - edible metallic decorating powder.
12. Insert the uncovered end of the skewer into the unicorn's head just above the ear on the bottom layer but as close to the seam between the cake layer as possible. The horn is heavy. The bottom ear, the length of the skewer and the weight of the top layer of cake all help to hold the horn in place.

Bridal Shower Mini Cupcakes

Mmmmm...Cupcakes! And mini cupcakes are even better! They don't come with as much guilt! So when my best friend started taking about desserts for her bridal shower (mini eclairs and such) I was quick to mention mini cupcakes. Of course, I didn't think of how I would transport them before I said I could make them, but I didn't mind the thought of eating the ones that didn't travel well...

I knew well in advance what cupcakes I would make. See below for the different varieties and how to make each.

Chocolate Raspberry was first on the list. I thought of making a chocolate cake with raspberry mousse icing but figured that might not be enough chocolate in one bite for most of this crowd.

I made devils food cake and piped raspberry jam in the middle of each one. That made for a delicious surprise!

Chocolate Raspberry filled - make mini chocolate cupcakes as normal. Once cooled, fill a piping bag with raspberry jam. Going through the tops of the cupcakes, squeeze about a teaspoon of jam into the center of each cupcake. Mix chocolate icing and raspberry flavoring together (how much you use is just a matter of taste). If you plan to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes in peaks, you will need to add powdered sugar to make a stiff consistency.

Lemon - There's nothing fancy about the cupcakes themselves. It's lemon flavored box cake mix. However, the icing is made with lemon juice, lemon peel, cool whip and Knox unflavored gelatin (one envelope dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water). Once the icing is piped on, place in the refrigerator to cool. The gelatin in the icing helps to set it. These would be fantastic on a summer day!

Pink - the easiest of all the cupcakes. This one is yellow cake mix, baked according to package directions. The icing is canned vanilla icing colored pink and made stiff with the addition of some powdered sugar.