Polka Dot Rainbow Cake

Here are some helpful tips and tricks for constructing a polka dot rainbow cake, decorated on the outside with the petal cake style.  
In this post, I'll focus on tips & tricks for execution rather than sharing a full recipe. Since you can find recipes for both of these types of cakes online already, I've linked to some recipes at the end of this post. 
For Talia's 8th birthday party, she wanted a polka dot birthday party. I knew that I wanted to make a cake surprise for her with a rainbow polka dot cake. I wasn't sure how I would decorate it on the outside until I came across what is called a petal cake which is the technique I used to frost the exterior- I love the effect!

Rainbow Polka Dot Cake

How to Make a Polka Dot Cake

I used store bought cream cheese frosting for between the layers and a crumb coat (because I was worried that I would run out of the homemade cream cheese frosting that I used for the rainbow part). 

Easy Rainbow Cake! (with cake mix & frosting!)

You don't need any fancy baking skills or experience to make an easy rainbow cake using cake mix- the quick and simple version of  the infamous rainbow cake that Kaitlin from Whisk Kid created and blogged about, then shared on the Martha Stewart show!
(This photo is of my version)

Pin It

How to Make an Olaf Cake for a Frozen Birthday Party

Disney came out with a new movie just over a year go that you may have heard of called Frozen... ;)  My daughters both wanted to have Frozen-themed birthday parties this time around, so I have several Frozen birthday party idea posts coming up for you.  Today we'll start with an Olaf cake tutorial.  I know that "drawing" something onto a cake with icing can be a bit daunting, so I thought I'd take step-by-step photos of how I created this one for you so that it will be easier for you to attempt if you want to recreate it. :)

I started with a white cake mix (made with egg whites- no yolk).  I made one purple round cake and one blue round cake.  I also made a basic buttercream frosting recipe. I guessed on the amounts that I would need for frosting the cake and decorating the cake.

To Assemble the Cake:

Powdered Sugar Heart Brownie Cupcakes

For bookclub this month I wanted to make something Valentine-y
because we were actually holding our meeting on Valentine's Day (most of
us either weren't celebrating or were celebrating on another night) ;)

So, I had a look at www.lifemadedelicious.com and found this Valentine Brownie Cupcakes Recipe.



Seriously easy!
Yuo just make the brownie mix like you normally would, spray cupcake papers with cooking spray, and put 2 tbsp of batter into each section of your muffin/cupcake pan.


Then you peel the paper off, let your brownie cupcakes cool upside down, cut out a little paper heart and put it on top (which is what would normally be the bottom). Sprinkle with icing sugar, carefully remove paper, & you have your heart!


I have to say that mine did not turn out as nice as the photo on the website & I was really trying hard! ;)
Out of the dozen that I made, here's what I got:

If you've tried this before, or if you DO try it,
please let me know if you find a secret to getting those hearts to come out clearer!

News From General Mills:

Are you stocking up on cereal this month? General Mills has their free movie tickets & snacks deal going on again! (watch for specially-marked cereal, Old El Paso®, Nature Valley® and Betty Crocker® child snacks)
I've already used a couple of them! (Went to see Les Miserables with my Mom! :)

Also, peanut butter Cheerios... have you seen these? I haven't spotted them yet, but I hear they're out on shelves this month! If you check out the Life Made Delicious Facebook Page, fans will be able to grab a coupon for FREE Peanut Butter Cheerios with purchase of other Cheerios flavours including: Apple Cinnamon, Banana, and Chocolate.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Easy Colorful Crunchy Candy Cake (a.k.a. the Kit Kat Cake :)

This post was originally published at www.sugaranddots.com as a guest post.
I thought it was time to share it with my readers here! :)

I made a Kit Kat Candy Cake for a cake auction. This baby went for over $100!

You may have seen this idea before (I traced it back to this post). I loved the idea and decided to make a few alterations- making it really easy to make, and even more colorful and crunchy!
You'll need:

Tutorial Tuesday: Graduation Hat Treats!

This has been Talia's last year of Kindergarten!!!

My baby is graduating from Senior Kindergarten, and I can hardly believe it!


But it's going to happen whether I'm in denial or not, so I'm celebrating (even when I sometimes feel like crying)! I found this recipe from the Life Made Delicious website for mini cupcake mortarboards and decided to make them for Talia's class. I go in and volunteer every other Friday morning, so last Friday I brought them. They were so cute! :)




Here's what I used:



- cake mix (chocolate)
- ready-made frosting
(sort of- I only had vanilla, so I had to add cocoa!! ;)
- fruit leather
- Smarties
(if you're in the U.S., you could do M&Ms or something like that)
- Chirardelli chocolate squares with caramel inside
(you can use anything square, but I could NOT find square cookies!! I looked at 3 or 4 different stores with no luck! Finally I decided to just spend the money on a box of After Eights (even though the majority of the kids probably wouldn't like mint). I went to the drug store to get them & found that these Chirardelli squares were on sale for 97 cents because they were "best before June 30th" ... perfect!!! :)

So, I started by making the mini cupcakes.
Then I added cocoa to my vanilla icing...



...until it was chocolate enough :)



Next I cut up the fruit leather (I thought the pieces I cut & took a picture of below would be right, but I had to cut them in half, because they were too stiff, and stuck straight out the top of the hat).



I cut the muffin tops off so that they would sit flat, upside down.



Now, the assembly:
You only need a dot of frosting to stick the chocolate on
(I went overboard on the first one, shown in the picture below ;)



...and then a dot on top of the chocolate, to "glue" the fruit leather & Smartie onto:



(Notice I had to hold the fruit leather down? That's why I cut the fruit leather strip in half- lengthwise- after the first one. Then it was "droopy" enough)




I love making fun food! :)
And the kids in Talia's class loved them, too :)
What a fun way to celebrate this little graduation in her life.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

How to Make a Tangled Barbie Cake!

For Talia's Tangled Birthday party, I borrowed a friend's Wonder Mold Doll cake pan, and made a Tangled Rapunzel Barbie cake!

I decided to use Talia's Tangled Barbie Doll because it would look more like the actual character. Also, we had a little situation with her poor doll- Katrina pulled a Flynn Ryder & cut its hair short. So, I figured that if I somehow ruined the doll, it wouldn't be the end of the world. (Talia's great grandma had just bought her a new Tangled Barbie to replace the one Katrina attacked ;)




Since Barbie dolls are too tall for the cake pan, I made a round cake as well. Here's how I constructed it:



Once it was assembled, I wrapped the Barbie with cling wrap up to her waist & gently shoved her into the cake ;) Then I removed her to put the fondant over the cake for the skirt (and tucked it under at the bottom since there was a ledge created by the second layer of cake).

The day before I decorated the cake, I made marshmallow fondant. It was the first time I made it & I was happy with the outcome!

After the skirt's fondant was in place, I made an X shaped cut in the waist and put the Barbie back in her hole.

After a long time of bending over the table, designing & decorating, I came out with a very sore back, this lovely specimen, and a pledge to never make another one ;)



I was very happy with it, but it sure did take a lot of effort ;) The purple parts are made with marshmallow fondant & the other colours are all buttercream frosting. I used a grass tip to make the braid. Next time I use fondant, maybe I'll master getting it smooth- I was a little scared of the fondant this time and didn't want to play with it too much, so I just hid the 'messy' parts at the back of the dress.

More from the Tangled Party Here.

Watermelon Ice Cream Cake

Here's another cool treat that I whipped up recently (and another idea that came from Pinterest :)



I couldn't find lime sherbet, so I used mint chocolate chip for the green part. I found that the easiest way to line the springform pan with the first layer (of green) was to open the (rectangular) ice cream box & cut a piece (the thickness that I wanted the green layer to be) and then cut it in half (so that it was the height I wanted the cake to be)... I used 4 of those pieces to go around my pan.

I did the vanilla layer the same way. Then for the red part, you mix the chocolate chips in & fill in the rest of the cake. (Can you tell from my picture that I forgot to mix my chocolate chips in- I got a little too excited & skipped that step, so I just stuck them on afterward ;)



I was really happy with how it turned out! Isn't it cute? :)

Cupcakes In A Jar!

I have been wanting to make cupcakes in a jar for a while now. (I've pinned several versions on my recipe board on Pinterest ;)

I recently looked for mason jars at WalMart and discovered that they're not very expensive, so I bought them with excitement & planned to make some red & white version of cupcakes in a jar for our family gathering for Canada Day.

You may notice that I didn't quite succeed with the red & white Canada Day plan, but meh... they were yummy ;)



I found a frosting recipe with strawberries in it and used this version of cupcakes in a jar as a guideline. I just used a cake mix for the cupcakes. I was happy with the frosting & the way these turned out- aren't they cute? :)

Basically all you have to do is get the right size of jar, make cupcakes (make sure you make all 24 so your cupcakes don't turn out too big) and then squish them into the jars with frosting between 2 cupcakes- easy & so cute & portable! :)

I have a feeling this is only the beginning of a long love of mason jars :) Have you ever made anything creative in a mason jar?

Cream Cheese Cupcake Frosting

I found a cream cheese cupcake frosting recipe while I was at my mom's house with the girls. We gave it a try & LOVED it! We dyed it several pastel, Spring-y colours, and had fun decorating (and then eating!)

Teddy Bear Cake

We needed a Teddy Bear Picnic Cake for Talia's Teddy Bear's Picnic Birthday Party this year!
Here's how I made a Teddy Bear Face cake:

Teddy Bear Cake

You can tell from the pictures how I made it, I think. It's a very simple teddy bear cake design that anyone can do without a mold or a lot of experience!

1. 'Glue' the ears on with frosting before frosting the whole cake with light brown chocolate frosting.

Teddy Bear Face Cake

2. Frost the cake with light brown frosting

3. Draw the face on with a toothpick

4. Add the darker chocolate frosting, the white for the eyes, and the chocolate chips for the middle of the eyes.

Teddy Bear Picnic Cake

Note: I would've used black for the mouth & nose, but I don't have black food colouring. I was planning to use a grass tip for the bear, to try & make it look furry, but when it was time to frost the cake, I found out I don't have one of those tips ;) So, I improvised.

-----------------------
Other Great Cake Posts:

Tangled Barbie Cake

Extra Easy Rainbow Layer Cake

Watermelon Ice Cream Cake

Kit Kat Candy Pile Cake

Ladybug Cake

Cake Frosted with a Rainbow on Top

Candy Cane Cake

5 Minute Microwave Chocolate Cake (Single Serving)

Swirly Rainbow Inside Cake

Pumpkin Roll (complete with photo & video tutorial)

2nd Birthday Cake

For Katrina's 2nd birthday, I decided to make her a cake.

I decided to make the inside all different colours like I did with these cupcakes. Here's how that turned out:

And I went out and bought some supplies for cake decorating. (This was long overdue. I once worked as a cake decorator at a Baskin Robbins and have missed being able to do that for my kids' birthdays- mostly I've just done cupcakes so far). I ended up decorating pretty simply & pretty quickly. Here's how it ended up: