My daughter's birthday cakes.
So this is a journey post. Recall that I learned to decorate cakes in order to make my daughter's birthday cakes myself. So, I used her cakes as practice. They get progressively better.
First birthday was mildly butterfly themed. I didn't want my baby to have too much sugar, so I used whipped cream instead of frosting to ice the cake. I tried to mold the marzipan and discovered that I CANNOT mold anything. I have zero talent in that department. How do I get around that? I use cutouts. So I bought my first set of butterfly cutouts for this cake. The cake was white cake, one layer dyed red, with strawberry jam in the middle. It was covered in whipped cream and topped with marzipan dyed red and store bought chocolate letters.
I was happy with the result considering that it was my first layer cake I had ever really made.
For her second birthday, she was really obsessed with ducks, so I wanted to make her a carved duck cake. Recall this was my first carved cake and my first fondant covered cake.
I baked one batch of cake in a loaf pan, cut about a third off the end, flipped it around and made that part the duck's head. I carved it a tiny bit into a duck shape, but it was still pretty boxy. The cake was yellow cake with maple instead of vanilla flavor and filled with candied pecans. It was delicious.
I covered the base cake with blue, adding a little yellow to the excess blue to make green and cut out some leaves to go around the sides. I put some white circles on the top meant to look like bubbles. Then there was the duck. The duck's body was covered in yellow fondant with wings also out of fondant. I added some red food coloring to the excess yellow to make a bit of orange fondant for the beak.
Looking at it now, I know I can do better, but for my first attempt, it wasn't that bad.
By the third birthday, my daughter was obsessed with Minnie Mouse, so her party was Minnie Mouse themed. This time, I wanted to make a surprise inside cake. Also, my daughter wanted a strawberry flavored cake, so I decided we'd need a couple different cakes just in case someone was allergic to strawberries.
In fact, I decided to make 3 different cakes. It was so spread out that I didn't even have a platter large enough for it, so I washed the tablecloth really well, and put the cake directly on the tablecloth.
The large center cake was vanilla and strawberry with a surprise inside and strawberry buttercream covered with pink fondant and white polka dots. Then, the two small round chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream covered with black fondant were added to either side of the pink cake to look like Minnie Mouse ears. Then I added a pink polka dotted fondant bow between the ears. I made the bow myself and I'd never made a large bow out of fondant before, so this was my first attempt.
I was very happy with the result. Everyone thought it was good and it tasted really good. The Mickey Mouse surprise inside could have been more obvious, but it looked pretty cool.
For my daughter's fourth birthday, I had just started making cakes for other people and wanted to go all out. She wanted Minnie Mouse again, but I didn't want to have a repeat party, so I talked her into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse instead.
We also discovered that we had to have two parties because friends and family was just too many people. So we did a friends party and a family party seperately.
I bought a handful of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figurines for the top and I stocked up on colorful fondant. For her friends party, I made neopolitan cakes, one layer vanilla and one chocolate with strawberry buttercream dyed red. I made a two tiered cake, covering the bottom layer in light blue with the clubhouse on the side as well as clouds in the sky and little Mickey Mouse heads out of black. The top layer was covered in red fondant and had yellow letters around it spelling my daughter's name. Then the figurines were added everywhere.
I was mostly happy with it until I realized that I forgot the silly slide on the clubhouse...
Next was the cake for the family party. I wanted this one to be a bit girlier. I covered the cake in pink fondant, decorated with black Mickey Mouse cutouts and pink bows using a fondant press form. I also added white polka dots and white 4's on the side.
I actually liked this one better than the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake. I just thought it turned out really beautiful.
What else do you make for a child's birthday? Cupcakes for Kindergarten. I bought a cupcake decoration kit and made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream dyed red. I also added two mini chocolate cookies for ears and added the characters from the kit. The two cupcakes with no ears were for a child in her Kindergarten class who is gluten intolerant. I made two cupcakes with almond flour for her.
First birthday was mildly butterfly themed. I didn't want my baby to have too much sugar, so I used whipped cream instead of frosting to ice the cake. I tried to mold the marzipan and discovered that I CANNOT mold anything. I have zero talent in that department. How do I get around that? I use cutouts. So I bought my first set of butterfly cutouts for this cake. The cake was white cake, one layer dyed red, with strawberry jam in the middle. It was covered in whipped cream and topped with marzipan dyed red and store bought chocolate letters.
For her second birthday, she was really obsessed with ducks, so I wanted to make her a carved duck cake. Recall this was my first carved cake and my first fondant covered cake.
I baked one batch of cake in a loaf pan, cut about a third off the end, flipped it around and made that part the duck's head. I carved it a tiny bit into a duck shape, but it was still pretty boxy. The cake was yellow cake with maple instead of vanilla flavor and filled with candied pecans. It was delicious.
I covered the base cake with blue, adding a little yellow to the excess blue to make green and cut out some leaves to go around the sides. I put some white circles on the top meant to look like bubbles. Then there was the duck. The duck's body was covered in yellow fondant with wings also out of fondant. I added some red food coloring to the excess yellow to make a bit of orange fondant for the beak.
By the third birthday, my daughter was obsessed with Minnie Mouse, so her party was Minnie Mouse themed. This time, I wanted to make a surprise inside cake. Also, my daughter wanted a strawberry flavored cake, so I decided we'd need a couple different cakes just in case someone was allergic to strawberries.
In fact, I decided to make 3 different cakes. It was so spread out that I didn't even have a platter large enough for it, so I washed the tablecloth really well, and put the cake directly on the tablecloth.
The large center cake was vanilla and strawberry with a surprise inside and strawberry buttercream covered with pink fondant and white polka dots. Then, the two small round chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream covered with black fondant were added to either side of the pink cake to look like Minnie Mouse ears. Then I added a pink polka dotted fondant bow between the ears. I made the bow myself and I'd never made a large bow out of fondant before, so this was my first attempt.
For my daughter's fourth birthday, I had just started making cakes for other people and wanted to go all out. She wanted Minnie Mouse again, but I didn't want to have a repeat party, so I talked her into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse instead.
We also discovered that we had to have two parties because friends and family was just too many people. So we did a friends party and a family party seperately.
I bought a handful of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figurines for the top and I stocked up on colorful fondant. For her friends party, I made neopolitan cakes, one layer vanilla and one chocolate with strawberry buttercream dyed red. I made a two tiered cake, covering the bottom layer in light blue with the clubhouse on the side as well as clouds in the sky and little Mickey Mouse heads out of black. The top layer was covered in red fondant and had yellow letters around it spelling my daughter's name. Then the figurines were added everywhere.
Next was the cake for the family party. I wanted this one to be a bit girlier. I covered the cake in pink fondant, decorated with black Mickey Mouse cutouts and pink bows using a fondant press form. I also added white polka dots and white 4's on the side.
What else do you make for a child's birthday? Cupcakes for Kindergarten. I bought a cupcake decoration kit and made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream dyed red. I also added two mini chocolate cookies for ears and added the characters from the kit. The two cupcakes with no ears were for a child in her Kindergarten class who is gluten intolerant. I made two cupcakes with almond flour for her.
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