Tag Archives: yellow cake

July 31, 2018 · 8:00 am

Taco Cake

This cake almost didn’t get made.

Levi said he wanted an “orange cake, yellow inside, with orange candles.”

I was trying to convince him to have ice cream cones instead of cupcakes (no baking needed!) when he told me his cake desires.

I checked that he didn’t maybe mean cupcakes??

Nope. Cake.

Fine.

Then, about a week before his party he told me he wanted a taco cake. *sigh*

Pinterest had a few different versions but I had to kind of combine the ideas to get what I had in mind.

I made 2 cakes and cut them both in half. I added frosting between them and once it had set a bit I turned them on their sides and frosted them with a crumb coat. Then I did a smooth frost of taco shell yellow frosting on just the outsides of the tacos and along the edges.

After the frosting had set up a little I moved them carefully to a cake board. It wasn’t really big enough so I had to put the tacos close together.

I piped brown “meat” buttercream near the bottom of the taco and then swirled it with the tip of s fork to add texture. Next I added lettuce with a leaf tip and green buttercream. I added layers in different directions and of different lengths to make it look more full and realistic.

Lastly I added cheese and tomatoes with buttercream. I tried to be as random as I could to make it look more realistic.

To cut the cake I just sliced it straight down from the top. After he’d blown out his candles of course. 😁

You can see the rest of the party here and the taco cookies I made here.

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Filed under Cakes

Tagged as birthday, buttercream, dragons love tacos, taco, yellow cake

March 19, 2013 · 8:00 am

Sesame Street Birthday

Drew just turned 1! He was still in the belly for the baby celebration that I made the green onesies for from this post.

The party theme was Sesame Street, and I got to make all the treats!

Of course there had to be character cookies. I don’t have the cutters, so I made do with what I had. Cookie Monster and Elmo were created with a flower cutter and an egg cutter. For Big Bird I just bent my balloon cutter a bit to make the beak straight.

For these characters, I knew black outlining was the way to go. It really make the features and colors pop.

As always, I free-handed the designs. Cuz that’s how I roll.

Last minute I decided I had to have cookie cereal to go on the cookie monster cookies. I got the idea from cupcakes like this that I’m sure just about everyone has seen at some point. It’s pretty genius whoever thought of it!

I also made cupcakes in the same colors as the characters. Piped simple swirls, and make custom cupcake toppers.

My husband actually made them on the computer for me and I just cut and put them together. 🙂

My most favorite part was the smash cake! Mama asked for it to be Cookie Monster, so I swirled it in bright blue frosting and piped the happy little face on the top.

Then I stuck cookie cereal to the sides. 🙂

Mama said Drew loved his cake. Once he got started, it was hard to get him to stop!

10 Comments

Filed under Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as blue, boy's birthday, buttercream, icing, red, sugar cookies, yellow, yellow cake

February 26, 2013 · 9:30 am

16th Birthday Cookies & Cake Balls

Alyssah turned 16 this week! Her mom is an old coworker of mine and decided to trick her for her sweet 16. Alyssah was told that there was just no money for a birthday party this year… but in reality there was a huge surprise party planned!

We went with zebra, hot pink, and turquoise as the “theme.”

This was my first time making zebra cookies. I contemplated a few ways I could do it before settling on outlining each stripe and filling them separately.

They came out better than I imagined, and each one was unique because I just free handed the stripes.

The rest of the cookies were filled in hot pink and bright turquoise, with alternating mongrams, 16’s, and her name.

Don’t they look cute together? I am in love with this set.

Last year for Alyssah’s birthday I made these Red Velvet Cake Balls. Her mom asked for cake balls again, so this year I went with yellow cake and chocolate coating.

I colored the chocolate coating black (or as black as I could) so that they would match the cookies. Then I drizzled the tops with turquoise and hot pink to match the cookies.

Alyssah was so surprised at her party! Her parents told her they were going to her aunt’s house for dinner. All her friends were hiding under the tables and behind furniture so they could pop out as she walked through the door!

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Filed under Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as blue, cake balls, chocolate, girl's birthday, pink, sugar cookies, yellow cake, zebra stripes

November 13, 2012 · 8:00 am

Yellow Chocolate Lava Cupcakes

Have you ever had a chocolate lava cake? Basically, it’s a chocolate lover’s dream. Moist, warm, dark chocolate cake with a hot, gooey, chocolate ganache center.

This recipe was originally posted as the standard Chocolate Lava Cupcake by Ruthanne of easybaked. I just loved the idea, but I don’t like chocolate much, so I decided to switch it up.

Yellow cake and chocolate are one of the best pairings that exist in the dessert world. So why not flow that chocolate lava from yellow cake instead of more chocolate?

I hope I’ve convinced you.

Yellow Chocolate Lava Cupcakes – recipe adapted from easybaked

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake + water, eggs, and oil to make

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used special dark)

1/2 cup dark chocolate candy melts (or semi-sweet choc. chips)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine heavy whipping cream and chocolate chips. Melt in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, or until firm. (I left mine in the fridge for 3 days before I had time to make these.)

2. Using a tablespoon, grab a hunk of hardened ganache and roll into a small ball. Roll ball in cocoa powder and set on a wax lined baking sheet or plate. (Makes about 18-20 balls.) Leave in the fridge until ready for use.

**This step was a little messy!

3. Make cake batter according to box directions, using a little less water than the recipe calls for. (I didn’t do this, and my batter was a little too thin. You’ll see why at the end.)

4. Preheat oven to 350*.

5. Scoop or pour batter into cupcake liners to about 1/3-1/2 way. Drop a ganache ball into each cupcake.

6. Pour or scoop just enough batter over the ball to cover completely.

7. Bake according to package directions, or until tops of cupcakes are dry and spring back to the touch.

8. Melt candy melts or chocolate chips in a zip top bag for 30 seconds. Massage with your fingers until completely smooth, melting for another 15 seconds if necessary. Cut the corner of the bag and squeeze chocolate drizzle on top the cupcakes.

9. Let cool about 10 minutes, then eat one warm. TRUST ME on this.

**Best served warm. If not serving immediately, heat in the microwave for 15-20 seconds before consuming. You want the lava flowing!

My cake batter was a little too thin, so my chocolate lava ball sank completely to the bottom.

Of course this didn’t effect the taste at all, it just required the use of a spoon or fork to eat. Which worked out well because the liners I used are sturdy and held up like a cup.

Whether you’re a chocolate lover or sometimes liker, I hope these cupcakes have converted some of you to the yellow chocolate lava side!

My coworkers LOVED these.

My best and most reliable cupcake judge (hi Terrence!) said “that was reeally special.” And then he told me he has to go to the gym tonight now. Haha…

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Filed under Cakes

Tagged as chocolate, yellow cake

September 7, 2012 · 8:00 am

Tool Cookies

Remember this baby shower? Can you believe that this little guy turned 1 already? Craziness how time flies!

Mama had a hard time coming up with a birthday theme idea, but somehow she thought of Tools! Perfect for him!

I am so in love with these cookies.

The colors were pulled from the plates she bought for the party.

I also made the lil guy a smash cake.

Simple and easy since it ended up like this anyway:

2 Comments

Filed under Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as birthday, blue, boy's birthday, buttercream, green, icing, sugar cookies, yellow cake

August 28, 2012 · 8:00 am

Blue’s Clues Party

The baby that was in the belly at this baby shower (more treats here) just turned 1!

Blue’s Clues was the theme, so we made lots of blue sweet treats!

Of course there had to be cookies. These were bagged and used as favors.

I made cake pops, but we wanted them to have puppy paws on them. I came up with the idea of using an oreo pop mold that I found online. I will definitely be using this technique again!

I did the paw print darker blue. I squeezed candy melts into the paw print, then tapped the tray to settle it into the mold. This also helped get all the air bubbles out. Tapping is key! Then I put these in the fridge for a few minutes to harden up.

With the lighter blue I squeezed a layer across the bottom of the mold. Then tap tap tap!

I mixed up the cake pop dough like normal, but instead of rolling it into balls I flatted it into a thick pancake and cut circles out of it with a circle cookie cutter. Then I just dropped a disk of cake into each mold and gently pressed it into the candy melts.

Then I just squeezed more candy melts around the cake and across the top, tapped it against the counter, and popped it into the fridge to harden up.

Once they had hardened completely (maybe 20 minutes?) they came out of the molds really easily.

Look how fancy they look!!

I also made the little guy his very own smash cake… that will be forthcoming!

7 Comments

Filed under Cake Pops, Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as birthday, blue, boy's birthday, buttercream, cake pops, cookie favors, icing, oreo molds, sugar cookies, yellow cake

July 14, 2011 · 5:46 pm

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Ever since I made rainbow cupcakes I have been doing colored yellow cake every time I make cupcakes. For the baby shower I helped throw, it was the perfect dessert.

The theme of the baby shower was baseball – more specifically Giants vs. Cardinals. The mommy-to-be is a die hard Cardinals fan and the daddy-to-be is a die hard Giants fan. It seemed only fitting!

All decor was red (Cardinals) and orange (Giants) with occasional blue for their little baby boy. The baby shower invitations were designed to look like baseball game tickets. Adorable.

Anyhow, the cupcakes. Half were red and blue (Cardinals) and half were orange and black (giants). The Cardinal cupcakes got red buttercream frosting and a Cardinals pick, and the Giants cupcakes got orange buttercream frosting and a Giants pick.

I want to take a moment to say anyone who has ever made their own cupcake picks – you’re crazy! I am never doing it again! It took forever. Although I have since seen those cute little paper cutters at Michaels that totally would have saved my hand from cutting out all of those stupid little circles! Live and learn…

Cake Pops!

I am helping to throw a baby shower today. On the menu was cupcakes, cake, and favor cookies (all to come in later posts!)… but after the cake (actually a giant cupcake) was baked, I realized it was way too small. I had about 34 servings between the cupcake and the mini-giant cupcake – and over 40 people. Not okay! So I made a last minute decision to make cake pops as well.

I have been dying to try making cake pops lately and since I got the opportunity here I jumped for it! So yes, this is my first attempt at them, and they look pretty darn CUTE if I do say so myself!

For everyone who has never had a cake pop or doesn’t know much about them, here is how it works.

1. Bake a cake in a 13×9 pan.

2. When the cake is completely cool, crumble it finely into a large bowl.

3. Add to the crumbs about 12 ounces of frosting. The cake pop creator and master, Bakerella, says to use store bought. This is where I diverted from the path a bit and used my vanilla buttercream recipe.

**Update: I use my own frosting, and I have no idea how much I put in it. I just add a little at a time, and stir it up, until it’s sticky enough to form balls. But not so wet that it’s going to slide off the stick.

4. Form sticky cake mix into balls (or whatever shape you want really) and set on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Put in fridge for about 15 minutes.

5. Melt candy melts (Wilton, can be bought at Michaels) in microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring until smooth consistency.

6. Remove balls from fridge. Dip the end of a lollipop stick into melted candy coating, then shove it into the cake ball. (Not all the way through, but at least 3/4 the way. You don’t want it to fall off.) Do this for all the balls on the tray, then put them back in the fridge. Let chill for a few minutes so the candy will harden.

7. Remove one cake pop from the fridge at a time and dip into melted candy. If you want it to have sprinkles, this is the time to add them. Stick upright into a styrofoam block to dry. (Or if you want them displayed stick up, just plop it back down on the wax paper – before adding sprinkles.)

I am so excited about these because they were pretty easy overall, look fabulous, and one batch makes over 50 cake pops! The candy melts come in so many different colors, plus the white can be dyed to any color you want (and/or flavored with oil-based flavorings). I can’t wait to get more creative and make more of these! I even added “Cake Pops” as a category to this blog because I know there will be more to come!

So back to the baby shower. Since I sprinkled the tops of the cake pops, I didn’t want to display them stick up, since they don’t look very cute that way. I tried mugs filled with shredded paper, but it just wasn’t supporting the heavy cake pop well. I ended u wrapping my styrofoam block in tissue paper, and then in wrapping paper before sticking the pops back in their holes. Cute huh? I will definitely do this in the future again too!

More baby shower goodies to come!

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Filed under Cake Pops

Tagged as baby shower, buttercream, candy melts, yellow cake

May 15, 2011 · 12:10 pm

Birthday Rainbow Cupcakes

I was going to make my own birthday cupcakes, but my mom ended up making me some funfetti cupcakes! yumm…. But since I was having a BBQ a couple days later to actually celebrate my birthday, I still decided to make some cupcakes myself.

This post was my inspiration. I went with yellow cake instead of white… It ended up making my colors not as bright and perfect as I wanted. My blue was a little greenish and my purple just looked brown. (They ended up turning out great though once they were baked.) Oh and I used Wilton icing colors – pink, lemon yellow, leaf green, sky blue, and violet.

I used my finger to push the batter to the edges like the inspiration post said, but They still didn’t bake perfectly… I’m guessing bubbles or something is what brought the lower colors up.

I was about to run out of pink so I did the last few with pink on bottom and purple on top. A few ended up without pink, and the last one actually only had green blue and a tad of purple. My husband got that one, he always eats the ugly stuff so no one has to see it!

I did a simple white vanilla buttercream, and piped it on so that it looked fancier. Topped with rainbow sprinkles of course! My brother asked me how I got them to look so perfect.

I was feeling a little disappointed about the color thing until I actually cut into one…

It looked so much better than I was thinking it was going to! One of my friends said she didn’t know it was rainbow until she bit into it, and it made her so happy she had 3 more!