Yes, I made my own birthday cake. Before I go any further I will say that my lovely hubby did offer to make it, or we could have bought one, but I said no. I wanted to make my birthday cake, and I will tell you why.
Regular readers will know that I recently went to a cake decorating masterclass with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro. At the class, I was basically just having a bit of fun and the cake I decorated was a right mess if truth be told! When we left we were given a decorating set from the Cake Boss range, and I decided that I would like to decorate my birthday cake, using the set. Partly to make use of the set, and partly to prove to myself (and the world) that I am capable of decorating a cake slightly better than the one I did at the masterclass!
We were having a birthday BBQ on the Saturday after my birthday, so on Friday, Monkey and I did a lot of baking. Or at least, I did a lot of baking while he basically ate quite a lot of butter and sugar. He was happily occupied at least!
I made a huge batch of cake mix, all following a very simple recipe. To make a fairly small batch (for 12 cupcakes or a fairly thin layer of sponge) you would follow this recipe.
4oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp baking powder
4oz soft Marge or butter (I use Stork)
4oz Caster Sugar
2 Large eggs
2-3 drops Vanilla Extract
Preheat oven to 170°C
Put all in a bowl and whisk with electric whisk until smooth and light. (Yep it is THAT simple!)
Bake 30 mins for cake, or 25 mins for cupcakes. Should be golden and bounce back if pressed gently in the middle)
I made 4 times that amount, made a huge cake, in two layers, and 24 cupcakes.
Then I made lots of lovely buttercream icing, using this recipe: (I made a double batch for my cake and cupcakes)
110g Unsalted Butter at room temperature
60ml Semi-skimmed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
500g sifted Icing sugar
Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth – can take several minutes with an electric hand mixer.
Gradually add the remaining icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
If you want different colours – your best bet is to add gel food colouring otherwise the consistency gets a lot sloppier and harder to work with.
On Friday night I dirty iced the cake (or applied a ‘crumb coat’) ready for some fondant. Now I didn’t do quite as cake boss would recommend. I didn’t trim the cake to make it flat (I did plan to cut off the tops of the sponge, but it felt too much like a waste of cake!) and I don’t really have the smoothing tools he mentions in his book. I did pipe the icing onto the cake before spreading with a spatula though, and I have to say that was much easier. Normally i am dragging it all over the place and there is crumbs sticking to the icing everywhere, and it basically looks a bit rubbish. Piping the buttercream onto the cake, and then spreading with a spatula, worked a LOT better!
I made some different coloured buttercream for decorating the cupcakes and used a couple of the tips we already had for piping the decorations on. It started off quite well, and I was really pleased with myself.
Then somehow, it went wrong. I know they say a bad workman always blames his tools but honestly something went weird with the piping tips. I used exactly the same technique from moments before, but they went from looking like this…
to this…
What? How? Oh I don’t know, but they look like I suddenly got drunk while piping, and well, as I am 3 months pregnant, I don’t think that happened. Anyway, hey ho, they will all taste the same!
I had planned on finishing the cake on the Friday night too but this had annoyed me somewhat and by now I was tired and irritable and eventually conceded the point to hubby and agreed it may be more sensible to finish icing the cake the following morning!
Feeling fresh on Saturday I set about decorating my cake. Unlike at the masterclass where I just went all guns blazing with no clear idea in my head, this time I had a vague design idea.
I started with the white fondant, which seemed to go ok, although I did make a bit of a mess on the sides of the cake.
Thankfully I planned on putting a thick band of icing round this bit, which will hide it but I managed to patch it up a little.
Then I cut some ribbons using the handy cutting tool from the set, and applied round the base of the cake (handily hiding my previous errors!).
The set comes with lots of different shaped cutters, but I chose to just use the star shapes for my cake. So I cut out lots of stars in the different coloured fondant and applied to the cake.
I don’t think I was very delicate with the stars as they look a little more like star fish than stars as they are all wavy, but they still look quite pretty! We’d bought some gel icing pens for writing on the cake with, so I had a little practice, and actually found them really easy to use!
So Ouila! My Birthday Cake and cupcakes! Not perfect and my writing on the cake was a little wonky but overall I was quite pleased. I was pretty chuffed with them, and everyone said they tasted yummy, so a big success overall I think!
I used the Cake Boss circus kit to make my birthday cake, which retails at £25.00. I received the kit free but all words and opinions are my own.
Your cake looks lovely and of course Happy Birthday!
Thank you! 🙂 xx
It looks fabulous and delicious 🙂
Thanks lovely 🙂 xx
Yay! Looks brill. I love a cake with stars on. Brought something similar from M&S for the boys bday. And just looked at your Cake Boss pics!!!! I LOVE THEM! #triedtested xxx
Thanks lovely, I love a few stars on a cake too hehe, ooh glad you like them! xx
It still looks like a brilliant starfish cake to me 😉 and bet it tasted very nice too!
Lol thanks, that’s exactly what I was aiming for 😉 xx it was yummy, it is a great easy recipe for a tasty cake! xx
Happy Birthday! How fun – there is something so satisfying about baking for yourself. What a great finished product too! #TriedTested
Thank you, you’re so right, i love the feeling of accomplishment!! xx
Oh I’d love one of these. You did really well I’m impressed. Happy birthday #triedtested
Thanks lovely, it is a great set! xx
That looks fab, I can’t use a piping bag to save my life! #TriedTested
Thank you, I am improving though as you can see with the cupcakes, i am definitely still hit and miss at times! xx
I love the cake! It looks fab. The kit sounds easy to use and it seems that you have got good use from it! #TriedTested
Thank you, the kit really is great and lots of fun to use too! xx
Your cake looks scrumptious and a huge Happy Birthday !!!! I hope it is the best day. And you get spoiled. I have never used roll out frosting but this makes me want to test it out. You got some great tools. #tastytuesdays
Thanks lovely, the roll out fondant is actually really fun to use and let your imagination go a bit wild so you should def try it 🙂 xx
I think it all looks brilliant, and very professional. I admire anyone with cake or cooking skills. Me, I just turn to Mr Kipling…
#Tried/Tested
Thank you, I’m not sure about professional but I will take the compliment 🙂 oh and there is nothing wrong with Mr Kipling! 😉 xx
Mmmmm looks very yummy, love the bright colours. #TastyTuesdays
thank you 🙂 xx
It looks Fab!!! better than i could do that’s for sure! and Happy Birthday! 🙂 #TriedTested
Thanks lovely! xx
Happy birthday, can I have a cake please? 😉 #TriedTested
Thank you and lol, sure, why not 🙂 xx
Well done you, that looks amazing! I don’t think I could make a cake just yet a few more practicing #triedtested x
Thank you, honestly it is the easiest recipe in the world and the decorating kit is great fun 🙂 xx
d…rooooool!! well done to you – this looks amazing!
carsonsmummy.blogspot.co.uk #triedtested
Lol, thank you 🙂 xx
Oh wow! That all looks so good!! Well done!! x
Thanks! xx
Happy Birthday! Your cakes look amazing, but WOW totally jealous of you meeting buddy! He is the reason I couldn’t get up for the school run today. Cake Boss marathon last night I love him. #TriedTested
Lol, thanks, he is awesome, i still can’t believe I was invited to meet him! xx
Heck you’ve done a better job that I could do!
Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
Lol, not sure about that but thank you! xx
Nothing wrong with baking your own birthday cake… 🙂 especially if it turns out to be great like this one. It looks absolutely divine!! Well done and happy birthday!
Thank you, I was pretty pleased with it, flaws and all 🙂 xx
Happy Birthday 🙂 the cakes look beautiful! Such a good job! Xxx
Thank you! xx
I rather like the idea of drunk looking cup cakes. To be honest your attempts make mine look very sad indeed so I’d be thrilled with those cupcakes! And I love your birthday cake. I do hope you enjoyed it all 🙂
Lol, thank you, and I was pretty pleased with most of them! Thank you I very much enjoyed eating lots of cake! xx
I think those cakes look fantastic, well done! I love the cup cakes, I can never ice like that.
Thanks for the tip of piping icing on before smoothing down, that would have made my sons moon cake a lot easier, but I’ll know for next time. x
Thank you, it really is a handy tip, wish I’d known about it before! xx
Your cakes look fantastic, Happy Birthday x
Thanks for running the creative challenge linky, I’ve really enjoyed taking part x
Thanks Lorna and thanks so much for taking part each week! xx
Your cake look amazing! I like the tip about piping on the butter cream before crumbing, I get crumbs everywhere!
Thank you and I know, I can’t believe I haven’t done it before as I usually have crumbs everywhere too! xx
Looks fab! Happy birthday 🙂
thanks lovely xx
Wow! Thats quite a spread! I’d love to go on a cake decorating course- I only make cakes on birthdays but they are a real labour of love and I’d love to know how to do it properly!
x x
#TriedandTested
Yep, lots of cake! I know what you mean, I don’t have the energy to do them more often either but it is a lot of fun and the cake decorating class was a lot of fun, though I imagine a real course would be amazing! xx
Oh wow, you are gifted, think you need to open your own cake business now! So impressed! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Lol thanks but I don’t think I am good enough for that, and I wouldn’t want to take the fun out of it either! Maybe one day when the kids are older and I’ve had a few more years to improve!! xx
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