Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Unfortunately for me Matthew's first birthday cake turned out like poo. I had found this really cute cake I wanted to make and "assumed" that Costco would have a nice unfrosted cake that I could use to make my cake. Well upon arriving at Costco the day of Matthew's birthday party I discovered there was no unfrosted cake. At this point I should have just bought one from there, but being stubborn I decided to go ahead with my plan. We got home from Costco I made the cake and cooked it on a sheet cake pan (big mistake). I wanted to make a layer cake with different tiers that looked super cute. The sheet cake made tiny tiers and then I made the mistake of using whipped frosting. Needless to say the cake was a big disappointment to me.


I have to say that I redeemed myself this weekend with Jordan's birthday cake. He wanted a round tiered cake so I decided to do the steps properly and make a beautiful cake. Here are the steps to take to make a beautiful two layer cake.

1. Buy a yummy store brand cake and 1 tub of frosting for the middle of the cake and 1 tub for the outside of the cake. If you are adventurous you can make your own frosting. I did take the easy route for the cake/frosting.
2. Make the cake from the directions (do not skimp on the ingredients) and pour into two 8 inch round cake pans. Actually before you pour in the batter, cut waxed paper slightly smaller than the bottom of the round cake pans. Line the pans with the waxed paper and spray with cooking spray and THEN pour in the batter.
3. Cook the cakes until they spring back and the toothpick comes out clean. Let them rest until they have cooled.
4. Remove the cakes and take off the waxed paper. Put them on a plate where they are completely flat and put them in the fridge to cool completely and harden slightly (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours).
5. Take the cakes out of the fridge and cut off the rounded parts of the top of the cake so they are perfectly level. Take one cake that is right side up and ice the top (this will be the middle layer). I didn't use a whole tub of icing but about half of one. Once it is iced place the second cake right side down (so the bottom of that cake is now the top). At this point you can either return it to the fridge for about 1/2 hour or go ahead and frost the outside with a thin layer of icing (I used about 1/2 a tub of frosting). I did the second option. The reason you do a thin layer on the outside of the cake is to seal in the crumbs before you do the final layer of frosting. I also used a cake spreader which is like a smaller long pancake turner. This works much better than a regular plastic flimsy spatula. Return the cake to the fridge for another hour.
6. I used the second half of the frosting and frosted the final layer on the cake. I love the cake spreader because it helped make the sides and top super smooth. I returned the cake to the fridge for another 1/2 hour-hour. This helped make it hard so it was perfect for decorating.
7. I rolled out some fondant that I bought at Michael's and cut different sizes of circles out of the fondant and then wet the backs of each circle (to help them stick) and decorated the cake with them.

This was the kind of cake I wanted to make for Matthew's birthday but it didn't work out so Jordan got the pretty version instead. It sounds like a lot more work than it actually was. I just wish I had a proper cake stand now, instead I used a pie plate turned upside down.



Three and Three is 33 for Jordan and Ray



With the candles lit