Cake Leveling

How many of you have ever baked a cake and it comes out with a rounded top?  I know I have many times!  Here is an easy and super simple way to level those cakes out!

If you are super talented you can level your cakes with a serrated knife (knife with little teeth on the blade) or if your like me and want to do it the easy way, you will need a cake leveler.  The cake leveler is easy to use and has several height positions for cutting your cakes.

Your cakes should be cool before cutting and frosting them.  I like to put my cakes on cooling racks.  These Wilton Cooling Racks are nice because they can be stacked on top of each other to save room!

 

Yes I forgot to take a picture of actually leveling them, but the leveler is soooooo easy to use!  Don't forget to save the cake you cut off the top, you can mix it with leftover frosting and make cake pops or just eat it!

 

Before putting cakes on cake plate, put some frosting down.  Think of your frosting like glue, it will help keep your cakes in place.  Remember to put the top of your cakes facing down to prevent crumbs getting into frosting and to put frosting in between each cake. 

 

Frost and Enjoy!

Madi's 4th Birthday

Madi's 4th Birthday is coming up next month and I am so excited!  We are going with a farm theme and we are going to have her party outside!  Outside in November, lets pray for some SUN that day.  We are going to get a bounce house/obstacle course, have a bonfire and lots of yummy food and desserts! 

Of course, I've pinned a ton of ideas on pinterest but I am most excited about her birthday cake!  Here is my inspiration!  Yes I will be changing it up a bit... 2 layers, no #2 on top and a #4 instead of the "Happy Birthday" sign.  

I found these awesome fondant farm animals on Etsy, I can't wait to see them in person!

I will be doing a tutorial on this cake.  It will be posted in a couple weeks!

Happy Birthday to Me...

My Birthday was on the 16th and I finally got around to 

making my birthday cake last week.  

It turned out great and was super easy to make!  

Tutorial to follow later this week!

Monster Cake

Now most of you have seen photos of my kids birthday parties and yes I know I go a little crazy, but I love doing it!  Everytime my kids hear the word "Birthday" they automatically ask me if I am going to make a Birthday Cake.  Since my birthday is coming up next week, I decided to post some of the birthday cakes I've made, starting with Liam's 2nd Birthday Monster Cake!

 

With making a decorative cake there are a few things you are going to need that you won't think about, the most important other than cake pans, decorating bags and tips is a Cake Leveler, to cut off the dome shape on the top of your cake.  Next your going to need a metal Spatula, these are a must for smoothing out your icing.  Then your going to need a Turntable to make decorating your cake easier!  

The icing recipe I use can be found here Extra Special Buttercream Icing.  It has a nice flavor and texture to it.  For coloring, I use AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste coloring that can be found at Hobby Lobby or Cake Specialty Stores.

I didn't take pictures of putting the Monster Cake together before icing, so I'll have to post another tutorial on that later.  

The cake itself is made of 5 layers of cake with icing between each layer.  The cakes are made with Pillsbury White Cake mix (yes I use box cake mixes on my cakes, I've found if I use a homemade recipe they are too moist and don't hold up as well). 

This is the base of the cake (4 leveled layers of cake and the top layer is the leftover cake cut off to form the rounded part)  I then put a layer of icing on cake.  As you can see I didn't get it really smooth because I knew I would be covering it up with piping.  

 

I piped a band at the bottom using a 1M (large star) tip then using a 5 (small dot) tip I started adding the Monster fur!  With the fur I pushed the tip in the iced cakes and pulled out while squeezing the icing bag until it was the length I wanted it, before you pull away stop squeezing! 

  

The Monster fur took about 3 hours to pipe!  And my hand hurt and was purple afterwards!  For the Eyes and Mouth I used Wilton Ready-To-Use White Rolled Fondant and used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Black for the mouth and eye balls.  For the eyes, I used a cookie cutter and the mouth I free-handed using this fondant cutter.

Happy 2nd Birthday Liam!