Goat Cake

 

My ten year old daughter is obsessed with goats.  I don't quite know how it happened, but it did. And now for the last two years, when anyone asks what she wants for her birthday, Christmas, 4th of July, etc, she says, "A goat."  Her Grandpa even got her a really nice stuffed animal goat for her 9th birthday.  She loves it.  She named it Fitzgerald Goatpants.  But still she asks for a goat.

As you can imagine, she won't be getting one.  We live in a suburb.  We don't have a fenced yard.  I don't have the slightest idea how to take care of a goat.  And have you looked at goats lately?  They are adorable as babies, but when they are adults - yeeesh!  Those crazy eyes aren't very pretty to look at. 

So we buy her shirts and sweaters with goats or sheep on them.  We check out books about goats from the library.  We let her set the background screen on the ipad to a goat photo.  We made sure to pet the goats at Cedar Point last summer.  (I know - who would think Cedar Point would have goats?  They do!)  My eleven year old daughter drew her the cutest goat picture for her birthday.

And me?  I make her a birthday cake in the shape of a goat, exactly as she requested.

The cake conversation went like this:
     Me: What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?
     Daughter: lemon (Good girl! Yum!)
     Me: Great.  But what do you want on the cake?  What do you want it to look like?
     Daughter: Can you sculpt a cake.
     Me: Ummm, no.
     Daughter: Can you make it 3-D?
     Me: You mean, something on top of another cake, like a cut out?
     Daughter:  Yes.
     Me:  Yes, I could do that.
     Daughter:  Great.  I want the bottom cake to be a grass cake, and I want a goat on top.
     Me:  ooooookay.

That kid cracks me up.  So I looked for a few cute pictures of cartoon goats online and found a really cute one.  I printed and enlarged it.  Then I baked two 9x13 inch cakes, one lemon and one french vanilla.  I made the french vanilla one thinner because I was going to cut the goat out of that cake.

I frosted the lemon cake green and then covered it with green frosting using the Wilton grass tip.  I froze the french vanilla cake for about a half hour.  When I was ready to cut the goat out, I took the cake from the freezer and placed the enlarged goat picture on top of the cake. With a sharp knife I cut around the picture until I had a goat shape in french vanilla cake.  I carefully pulled the excess cake from around the cut out goat and then transferred the goat to the top of the grass cake.  I initially thought I would just frost it with a knife, and then decided stars would look nicer.  I frosted the horns first, then started squeezing stars all over the goat.  I finished with a few lines to better define the legs and then the eyes and nose.

I showed it to my daughter who absolutely loved it!  And so do I.  One of the things I like most about it is that I didn't copy anyone else's cake.  I listened to what my daughter wanted and made it happen.  I love knowing that she is happy and is getting exactly what she wants for her birthday cake.

A 40th Birthday

This year my husband and I are both turning 40.  Our original plans were to not actually have a party for either of us, but to go away for 4-5 days (without kids!) while my Mom and Dad watched the kids.  We have never gone away for more than a weekend since having the kids and it has been several years since we've even done that.  Unfortunately, both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer this year.  My Dad's prostate cancer was discovered first and successfully removed and his bill of health is excellent.  Unfortunately my mom was diagnosed with stage IV inoperable liposarcoma in early August and passed away on September 16.  It has been a difficult adjustment to life without her, and on top of that her birthday (would have been her 70th) was the day after my husband's 40th birthday.

I had to wrap my head around everything and so planning for Brendan's party was put off a little until I finally got in the mood to celebrate.  When I finally did I had about three weeks to get everything together for a little family soiree.  I decided on a DC superhero theme, as Brendan is a huge Batman and DC comics fan.  I tried to make the theme both fun and not too juvenile.

What I finally came up with was a few neat decorations, a fun cake, and some themed drinks and snacks.  My kids helped by making some posters and Emma even made herself a "Super Emma" costume that I somehow did not get a picture of.  (In my defense, she took it off by the party, getting tired of tripping on her blanket cape.)

My first concern was the cake.  I have a Wilton Batman pan and have made Brendan a Batman cake with it, so I felt he needed something bigger and better.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, but he told me to make what I wanted.  So after much internet searching, I was inspired by this Cakes Infinity cake and made my own little version.  The top two tiers are pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon buttercream filling.  The bottom tier is chocolate chocolate chip cake.  Vanilla buttercream frosting with marshmallow fondant decorations.  My brother-in-law told me, "Best cake yet!"  A pretty good endorsement!

3-Tiered Batman Cake

I have also been inspired by all the beautiful tablescapes fancy party planners put on the internet and all over Pinterest, so I made a few decorations for our party table.  First, I made labels on my computer for the party beverages.  I chose four of the top Justice League Heroes and chose names and drinks to go with their hero name.  My first creation was "Flash Fizz."  Since his main color is red, I bought Jones Soda Strawberry Lime flavor and removed all the labels.  I attached the new labels voila, four bottles of Flash Fizz.  I repeated the process with "Green Lantern Soda" (Jones Soda Sour Apple),  "Batman Brew" (Guinness Draft) and "Superman Suds" (Blue Moon Beer).  After making four of each bottle, I placed them on either side of the table so everyone could see them.

Superhero Drinks

Next I made my husband's initials with paper mache letters from JoAnn Fabric.  I painted them blue then used Mod Podge and some pages from an old Batman comic book to really personalize them.  (And let me tell you - first time for using Mod Podge and I love it!) 

Batman Initials

Finally, I bought some sour apple rings from my grocery store on a whim. I called them "Green Lantern's Rings" and then labelled a bowl of pretzels "Riddler's Twists."  Overall I think the table turned out really neat and I know my almost four year old nephew thought it was really cool!

Superhero Party Table

Overall, it was a successful party.  My husband appreciated the fun little details and I had a great time creating them.  Now to figure out how to celebrate my 40th in about six weeks.

Baby Cake

My husband's cousin Katie was hosting a baby shower  a few weekends ago and asked me if I would make cake for the shower.  She had a picture and wondered if I could make a similar cake.  I looked at the picture and said I would (and could) do it.

I love making new cakes and challenging myself with how I can make it.  For this cake, Katie wanted a pregnant belly (and breasts) in a fancy dress.  Oh yes, she wanted a little foot kicking the inside of the belly.

Pregnant Belly Baby Shower Cake

 I looked at what I had to work with and decided on baking the cake in my largest Pyrex bowl for the rounded belly and my smallest Pyrex bowl for the breasts.  Then I made two layers of a 9-inch round cake and one layer of a 5-inch round cake to go underneath the belly and breasts.  I ended up having to carve off the edges of the large bowl cake as they were a little too big for the 9-inch cake base, and were a little dry and hard because they cooked faster than the middle of the bowl part of the cake.  I then frosted and stacked all the layers and placed them on a cake board in the correct shape.

Close-up of the little baby foot

 The next step was to make a little marshmallow fondant foot and place it on the belly after I frosted, but before I covered the cake in more mmf.  This part went well until I covered the whole thing in the fondant.  The foot part was visible, but I hadn't made the toes big enough to see through the top layer of fondant.  I picked the fondant up off the cake (yikes!) and of course it tore on both sides of the belly.  I replaced the original toes I made with round balls of fondant and replaced the fondant dress cover.  I was able to mend the tears somewhat with water and smoothing, and covering with the black zebra print fondant pieces.  I was happy with how the foot looked now, but a little bummed with the cracked fondant.  In the end it turned out beautiful, and now I know to make the toes bigger!!!

Ocean Night Cupcakes

Zoe, my first grade daughter, was having Ocean Night with her class, and her teacher asked if some parents would make snacks. So, I volunteered and started scouring the internet for cute ideas. I finally decided on several different cupcakes. The plan was to make 48 of them, with different ocean animals on each one.

My first cupcake was a sea turtle cupcake because Zoe's animal that she researched was a sea turtle. I made about 8 of these. I loved how sweet these little guys were. The head was a large green gumdrop with miniature chocolate chip eyes, the shell was a sandwich cookie half with piped on frosting and dipped in green sugar, and the legs were spearmint leaves cut to size. (I also loved that I used NO FONDANT on any of the cupcakes, all just cookies, candies, and other yummy goodies.)




My next set of cupcakes were colorful fish. I made 22 of these. They are simply M&M's and a flattened fruit slice cut in half. Super easy and super cute!



I made these Octopus cupcakes with orange melting disks from Wilton. I just kind of winged it (and yes, I know Octopus have eight legs, but they looked cuter with only six.) I put it on top of some pretty blue buttercream frosting, and voila - an octopus cupcake. I made the seahorse the same way - but only made one of these. (Zoe's best friend did her project on seahorses, so I had to make one!)




I made these whales and whale's tails cupcakes with Twinkies and chocolate wafer cookies. I got the idea from the "What's New Cupcake" book that I got for my birthday from my mother-in-law. I was surprised that they actually turned out almost as cute as the ones in the book. The heads were popular with the kids, but none of the tail cupcakes went!



By far, the most popular cupcake (and I only made three!) was the shark cupcake. It is also made with a Twinkie and a chocolate wafer for the fin. The mouth is red fruit roll up, the eyes mini chocolate chips. These were the first off the table, and probably into boy's hands, though I cannot guarantee that!




I spent an entire day decorating these, but it was so worth it seeing the kid's faces when they got to have one!

A Few Treats

Well I did get a little fancy over the holidays and made a few pretty treats to serve. My husband has a department work party where the company brings in the main dishes, but the employees (and/ or their spouses) send in desserts and goodies.

I made my chocolate chocolate chip cake with peppermint buttercream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting. I wanted to fancy it up a bit, so I made white chocolate mint snowflakes to put on the cake. I finished with the words "Let It Snow" on top. I tried to make the words sparkly by applying luster dust, which didn't go too well. But I was really pleased with the results and my cake won two categories in the employee voting. I won "most appealing to the eye" and "most festive." (I actually tied with three other people in one of those categories, but I can't remember which!)



I also finally made Bakerella's Cake Pop's that she has become so famous for! I decided to make buttermilk Devil's food cake for the base. I then crumbled half of the cake and mixed it with vanilla frosting. I mixed the other half of the crumbled cake with peppermint frosting. I dipped them in a mixture of chocolate bark and Ghirardelli's bittersweet chocolate. Then I sprinkled pretty Christmas sprinkles on top and then finished them with a Merry Christmas sign or red or green bow. I love how they turned out!







Now to start dreaming up my Valentine's treats!

A Few Cakes

I know my blogging is erratic at best, but I'm trying to get back into it. I am planning on having my 12 Recipes of Christmas again starting in December, and need to get back in the habit of posting (semi) regularly.

I have been making a lot of desserts and cakes lately. In fact, I took a Wilton's beginner cake decorating course back in August and really enjoyed it. It was a gift from my husband who knew I would love it, but probably needed a little nudge to get into it. A lot of it I already knew, but there were some new techniques and tips that I took from the class and has helped improve my cake decorating skills.



I made this cake for my friend Lola who had a little girl in July. This was actually the "graduation" cake I made for my Wilton course. I was really happy with how it turned out. I used a technique called pattern gel transfer to "trace" the outline of the sheep onto the cake. I was really pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed giving it to Lola's family to enjoy. It was a vanilla cake with almond buttercream.



This was my son's 11th birthday cake. He is a big Cubs fan and wanted a big cake to celebrate with. He had a laser tag party with several of his friends, three of which are White Sox fan. They ate the cake, but it did take a little prodding. This is a chocolate chocolate chip cake with vanilla buttercream.



This was my daughter's 8th birthday cake this year. She had asked me several months before her party if she could have a four tiered cake! I told her sure, and she proceeded to sit down and draw a picture of how she wanted her cake. She had an arts and crafts birthday party in our basement and the girls were thrilled with the cake. Half of it is chocolate chocolate chip, the other half vanilla cake. All with vanilla a buttercream.



I made this cake for a cake walk at my kids' school. It is a 6-inch chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate buttercream icing. It is "wrapped" in Kit Kats and topped with M&M's. This cake was popular and went quickly!

I plan on sharing more cakes soon. I still have a few more that I am proud of and have never shared here. Hope you have enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Easter Cakes

We celebrated Easter a week early with my family and this year my mom asked me to make some cake for the festivities. Now if you know my family, you will know that they are not cake people. (Not my husband and kids, but the family I grew up in, and funny enough, all the spouses of my brothers and sister, except mine of course!) They would rather eat pie, cheesecake, baklava, buckeyes, ice cream, dirt pudding, cookies, etc. over cake.

But my mom knows how much I like making cake and thought it might be a nice change for us. So, I searched for some easy and cute cake ideas for Easter. Being that I was traveling to Ohio and making everything there, I didn't want anything too elaborate. I found the bunny cake idea here, and the chick cupcake idea, here.

I made chocolate cake for the two bunnies. The white bunny was made from a round 9-inch pan, the brown bunny from a round 8-inch pan. They were supposed to look like a mommy and baby, but my mom pointed out that it looked more like a mom and teenager bunny.

I made vanilla buttercream for the bigger bunny, and chocolate buttercream for the littler bunny. The ears are just cut out from paper and of course the eyes and nose are jelly beans. The chick cupcakes were lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting. Delicious!


I was very happy with how cute they were, and the eleven grandkids all thought they were adorable. That didn't stop them from devouring them, though!

Hope you have a great Easter!

A Month for One Birthday!

Zoe turned six this month, but it seemed like we were celebrating it one way or another every week this month! I know I baked three different treats for the events, and she made her own ice cream pie to celebrate with. But, it has been fun.


The first treat I baked were cookies called half and halfs. They are a half chocolate chip cookie, and half chocolate chocolate chip cookie, stuck together! I made these extra large and sent them in for her birthday treat for school. According to Zoe, they were a hit!



Because I was making so many cakes/ treats for her birthday parties, I suggested that Zoe make one of her famous ice cream pies for the family to eat on her actual birthday. She chose chocolate ice cream and sprinkled a variety of chocolate chips and sprinkles on top.



The first cake I made was for our family party. Usually, this is the only party my kids have each year. But Zoe has been asking for a "friend" party for quite some time, so we decided that she could have a friend party, too, this year. This cake was a two tier cake. The bottom tier was chocolate chocolate chip cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, the top tier was white almond sour cream cake with almond swiss meringue buttercream. I made the decorations out of marshmallow fondant. Zoe explained the colors and decorations that she wanted, and I came up with this cake.


The following weekend was her friend party. We had ten little girls running around our house having a great time for Zoe's first "friend" party. Zoe loved being the center of attention and also loved her big 6 cake that she requested I make for this party. I took two nine inch chocolate cakes, cut a hole in the middle of one and carved the other one to look like the top of a six. Then I frosted over the whole thing with vanilla buttercream frosting. Zoe requested orange frosting with polka dots, so that is what she got! I was very happy with how the cake turned out.

Overall, I think Zoe would say that her month of birthdays (and treats) was a good one!

Baptism Weekend

My newest nephew, Declan, was baptized this Sunday. The ceremony was held in a lovely old chapel with wooden floors and beautiful stained glass windows. The remarkable part was that Declan was the only child baptized that day. All three of my kids had several other children and families baptized on the same day they did. But Declan's was relaxed and personal and the old deacon who performed the ceremony was great with children. He made sure that both my three kids and three of Declan's cousins on his father's side of his family had a good view and even let them help him after the baptism with cleaning up and turning the font off.


My husband, Brendan, was godfather. It was fun to watch him light the candle and hold Declan in the pictures afterwards. A cool little aside - the beautiful baptismal gown Declan is wearing was originally his great grandfather's. He wore it, my mother-in-law was baptized in it, as well as my husband and his brother and sister (Declan's mom), and all three of my kids.

The party at my mother-in-law's house was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law's family is lots of fun, and I always enjoy my husband's family. Zoe made friends with the Coffey cousins and spent the entire day running around with them. She has arranged a playdate for an unspecified later date.

I played my usual role, which was to make the cake. I love doing that. I spent a lot of time online looking at other people's cakes for baptisms and first communions, trying to get some inspiration. But, it was a cross that I found at a Christian Bookstore that gave me my final idea for Declan's cake. I bought it as part of Declan's gift and used it as the cake topper for the cake. It is a two-sided cross with a little baby in jammies holding a blankie. On each side is a prayer, one for the morning and one for the night. The jammies have tiny little stars on them. When I saw them, I knew Declan's cake would have to have stars. This is what I made:


It was a huge four layered 9-inch cake. It was chocolate frosted with vanilla buttercream. I made marshmallow fondant stars to encircle the top and sides of the cake. Both the cake and the frosting are made from scratch. The cake recipe is a Martha Stewart recipe - a real keeper! The buttercream is Wilton's recipe.


As I wasn't sure if this would be enough cake, I made a second, smaller cake. I made another Martha Stewart recipe, and it turned out fabulous. It was a vanilla cake that I brushed with an Amaretto simple syrup. The frosting was an Almond Swiss Buttercream. It was the first time I made a cooked frosting and I must admit it turned out great. I have long been intimidated by cooked frostings, but with my trusty Kitchenaid stand mixer and my candy thermometer, the frosting turned out really good. What amazed me most was that the frosting for just one cake took three (3!) sticks of butter. That's a lot of butter. But it was good. I decided to coat the sides with sliced almonds. The cake turned out really dense, but really good.


This is the godfather with his godson. They're both pretty cute, don't ya think?

My Baby Is Five!

My youngest daughter, Zoe turned five today. I let her pick dinner and my benevolent daughter passed over bacon cheeseburger roll-up, probably her favorite meal of all time, for tacos, something her brother and sister both like. (Let's just say her big brother and big sister don't particularly enjoy bacon cheeseburger roll-up and leave it at that.) After dinner we sang "Happy Birthday" to Zoe and had ice cream.


We had the family over on Sunday to celebrate and had lots of fun and good food. I made my current favorite hors d'oeuvres, bacon wrapped lil' smokies. Can you say, "the way to ruin a diet?" Anyways, let's just say that they all got eaten along with the sugar coated pecans, cheese and crackers, dill vegetable dip and M&M's.


Zoe requested a Scooby Doo cake this year, so I made her a chocolate chocolate chip cake frosted in both chocolate and vanilla buttercream. Luckily I had a Wilton cake pan from when my son wanted a Scooby Doo cake several years earlier and so this cake was fairly easy to make. Zoe really loved it, which is always what is the most important to me.

Zoe got lots of great gifts, three dresses, a Barbie Thumbelina doll, a Hannah Montana doll, a book, and her favorite gift of the day: The Imaginext BatCave. It comes with the Batcycle, a Batman, a Robin, and lots of cool little features inside the BatCave itself. All three of my kids have now played with it every single day since Zoe received it and yes, Thumbelina and Hannah have been inside, as well as Brendan's Batgirl from on his dresser.


Now I just have to get used to the fact that my baby is five. Not sure how long it is going to take for that to sink in!

Boston Cream Pie

I made this last year for Christmas Eve dessert. We were going to church in the afternoon and then heading straight to my father-in-law's for dinner. I had to make something that could sit in the van during mass and make it easily to his house. This is one of those super simple recipes that tastes great and looks impressive as well. If you are looking for a dessert last minute that is not too time consuming, this is the one.


Boston Cream Pie

1 pkg. (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons hot water

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Prepare cake mix batter according to package directions. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans.

Bake for 28-33 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing cake from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

In a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Cover and refrigerate.

In a microwave, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and enough water to achieve a thick glaze; set aside.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with pudding. Top with the second cake layer. Spoon chocolate glaze over the top, allowing it to drip down sides of cake. Refrigerate until serving.


My family really enjoyed this recipe, and I enjoyed that it didn't take all day in the kitchen to make!

Chocolate and Peppermint Cake

This cake is a showstopper. Everyone will look at your pretty creation and want some. All the recipes are from The Cake Mix Doctor, but she did not put any of them together this way. That is my creation. It really is a great cake, and because it comes from a mix it is so easy! I made this for my husband's grandmother's birthday a few years ago because she has a December 23rd birthday. I love that candy canes are used on and in it. What is more Christmassy than candy canes?


Chocolate and Peppermint Cake

Cake:
1 pkg. devil's food cake mix
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Place all ingredients except chocolate chips into bowl. Mix on low speed 1 minute. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2-3 minutes more. The batter should look thick and well combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 27-32 minutes (or whatever time the box recommends) or until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Peppermint Buttercream Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup finely crushed peppermint candy
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract (OR 1/2 tablespoon peppermint schnapps)

Mix butter on low speed until fluffy. Add peppermint candy, powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and extract OR schnapps. Blend on low speed until sugar is incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, about 1 minute. Blend in up to 1/2 tablespoon milk if filling is too stiff.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
1/3 cup whole milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Beat butter and cocoa on low speed until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix on low speed until frosting lightens and is fluffy, 2 - 3 minutes. Add more milk if frosting is too thick, or powdered sugar if too thin.

Assembling the cake:
Place one cake layer on serving plate. Spread with Peppermint Buttercream. Place other cake layer on top. Frost with Chocolate Buttercream. Sprinkle additional crushed peppermint candy on top for a pretty presentation.


Notes on this recipe: I use a Duncan Hines cake mix because it does not have pudding added to the mix. Using one of the others will probably work fine, but it may result in a heavier cake. If you are making the frosting, do not substitute margarine for the butter. Butter tastes way better.

I really enjoyed making and eating this cake! You can speed up the process by adding peppermint extract to canned vanilla frosting and using canned chocolate frosting. But, if you are going to the fuss of making a special dessert, homemade frosting does taste better. (Especially this chocolate frosting recipe - to die for!)

Only 8 days and 4 recipes until Christmas!

More Cake And Some Favors

Over the last three weeks I've made more cakes than I can count (okay, not really, but I've made lots of cakes lately.) The first one was for Elizabeth, my sister-in-law's, baby shower. This is her first baby and my first niece or nephew on my husband's side of the family, so I'm very excited to get to hold another baby again! (That's Elizabeth with Zoe and Emma - isn't she the cutest pregnant woman?)

Her only request for the cake was the flavor, my snickerdoodle cake. It is a cinnamon cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting. I've never met anyone who doesn't love this cake. So after lots of internet searches for ideas for a cake, I finally came up with this cake:


The clothes are just cut from scrapbooking paper and hung on with little clothespins I found at Michael's Crafts store. I found the idea for this cake here.

I wasn't sure the three layered cake would be enough for everyone, so I also made 12 chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream. I topped them with little plastic carriages I also found at Michael's. Here are what they looked like:


Along with the cake duties, I volunteered to make the favors for the shower. I made 25 little paper onesies with three Hershey's milk chocolate nuggets inside each one. They turned out so cute that I had to share them here:


My husband's Aunt Mary, also happened to be having a birthday on the day of the shower and her sisters wanted to surprise her with a cake. So with the other half of the batter from the cupcakes, I made a nine inch round cake for Mary. Here it is:


Finally, I made my husband's 36th birthday cake, too. Since I've been married to him I've made him a cake every year, but none have been particularly exciting form a decorating standpoint. But this year, I wanted to surprise him. He has been talking for a few years how when he was little he had a Batman cake all done in the frosting stars. Then in March at Zoe's 4th birthday, he made an offhand comment about how he would like the same birthday cake Zoe had. So being the good wife that I am, I made him this cake:


He loved it!

That is all of my cakes (except for the pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting I made for Bunco two days ago) from the last three weeks. I'm going to focus on pumpkin pie now!