Archive for May, 2008

Ice Cream Cone Cake

{ May 20, 2008 @ 4:21 am } · { 3-Dimensional }
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To celebrate the coming of summer, I decided to do something wild and crazy for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party – I scream “cone dupli-cake”! The thing that makes this wild and crazy is the real scoop of ice cream on top of the cake cone. It’s not one of the hardest I’ve done, but it looks pretty cool.

I decided to broaden my cake repertoire, so tried making lemon blueberry and lemon poppy seed cakes. It turned out pretty well and will become one of my staples! I made a lemon blackberry sauce to complement the vanilla ice cream and a cream cheese frosting for the cakes.

For the cone cake itself, I ended up using three 6×3 round cakes (I had made 4 just in case). For the top cone, I used two 8×2 round cakes. I stacked the cakes to form the cone and used a wooden dowel to stabilize it.

For the ice cream scoop on top, I lined a mixing bowl with plastic wrap and spread softened vanilla ice cream inside. I froze the ice cream in the mixing bowl until it was ready to use. When the birthday boy was ready for his cake, I took the ice cream out and placed it on top of the cake. For serving ease, I put the ice cream back into the bowl and just scooped it out when serving with the cake. I drizzled the lemon blackberry sauce on the vanilla ice cream for pizzaz.

The tasty caterpillar…

{ May 4, 2008 @ 5:36 pm } · { 3-Dimensional }
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Did you know caterpillars have 4,000 muscles compared to 629 that we humans have? I guess that’s why they eat so much…though it doesn’t explain why I tend to eat so much!

I decided to make a caterpillar cake for a friend’s son who was turning 4. It was a garden/bug party theme, with a huge, blow-up caterpillar obstacle course in the backyard, so my caterpillar cake felt right at home. I tried a new recipe, a vanilla pound cake and it turned out pretty well, though a bit dense. I also made chocolate cake just for variety. For the filling, I made a blueberry/strawberry/raspberry/blackberry/lemon curd with whipped cream which worked really well with the pound cake and chocolate cake. The frosting was vanilla buttercream.

I used a Wilton ball pan to make the segmented body and the head. Overall, I made 3 batches of cake to form a 5 segment body and a ball carved head.  To make the head, I used one 1/2 and trimmed the bottom to form a sphere with a truncated, flat bottom so it could perch on top of the body.  To stabilize the head on top of the body dome, I used a wooden skewer which I pounded down to the cardboard base. The head shifted slightly en route to the party, so if I do this again, I’ll use a wooden dowel (thicker than a skewer) for stability instead.

I decorated the caterpillar with Mike & Ike’s and Dots candies.