A Tale of Two Cakes

February 28, 2010 in cake

My sweet baby boy had his 3rd birthday party yesterday. A few weeks back I started asking him what kind of cake he wanted and every time our conversation went like this:

Me: What kind of cake do you want?

Him: Blue.

Me: Blue?

Him: Orange.

Me: Orange?

Him: Pink.

Me: Pink?

Him: Blue.

Me: BLUE?!

So I said, okie dokie, he’s getting the most colorful cake ever. I figured I could turn my favorite rainbow cupcakes into a layer cake. I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe (and the buttercream on that page minus the cinnamon) and the cakes turned out bright and beautiful. But when I put them together and slapped some icing on it, I started worrying it was hideous. I kept asking my husband if it was awful and thanks to his crash Army approved diet, he didn’t have his usual enthusiasm in reassuring me that everything is okay.

I thought, what the hey, it’s hideous. Let’s just cut into it and take a peek:

And then I cried, kicked my husband, and got on Twitter to complain about what an idiot I am.

At that point I was ready to head to Target to buy a cake but since I had already posted a picture of what I was working on, I had to do something.

I let me husband talk me into doing another cake. *huuuuge sigh* Luckily, my friend Kelly suggested trying chocolate icing since it tends to be a little more forgiving.

So here we go… the REAL birthday cake.

I used these colors:

Except I’m lying because I took this picture when I was working on the first cake. You remember when my copper color gave me trouble on some cookies? Yeah, copper invited itself to yet another party. Apparently the orange label and the copper label look alike when you’re in a rush. So I used all those colors except orange.

Also, the kelly green right there is exactly like Wilton’s leaf green. Don’t waste your $1.69 like some of us did.

There’s really not a recipe so I’ll share the method. Double your favorite vanilla/white cake recipe (or a box!) and divide it into 6 bowls. I had a cup and a couple tablespoons in each bowl. Dye each bowl of batter a different color; pour into prepared 8 inch round pans

Then bake according to recipe instructions. Watch carefully though, they’re very thin and mine were done after 10 minutes.

At the last minute the kid informed me that he wanted star cookies ON his cake so I baked up a batch (using a new sugar cookie recipe that I wasn’t excited about. It spread more than my favorite) and decorated them with the same bright colors.

And then my husband iced it. I’m not even lying. He offered to do it so that I could blame him if it was ugly. (I’ll put the recipe I used down at the bottom of this post.)

It was beautiful inside, just like the first one. The little boy was happy with it and that’s all that mattered.

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A Tale of Two Cakes
 

Ingredients
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
  • ⅔ cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • ⅓ cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
  1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.


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