Lego Birthday Cake

Haven’t been feeling well the past few days. So sat on the sidelines with a box of tissues and wrapped in a blanket while the rest of the family ice-skated yesterday. (I would’ve probably been better off in bed, but didn’t want to miss out of the family fun completely.)

At home again, Ken noted that the Dayquil I’d taken had done nothing to help ease my symptoms. Neither had the free-range organic chicken stock that he used to make that day’s soup. So he made something that he felt SURE would help me. Chocolate cake. With chocolate frosting. : )

I took two doses last night and have had another today. They’re at least as beneficial as the DayQuil, if not better.

And all that as a silly introduction to recap the birthday cake I made quite a while ago for the man who makes me cake when I’m sick. : ) And who enjoyed the Lego Movie, which had just come out around the same time.

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting, as always.

I baked a square cake – to become the main brick pieces – and a bunch of little mini-cupcakes – to become the studs on the bricks.

I cut square in half, then put one of the resulting rectangles on a piece of cardboard cut to the same size. Also made some supports out of cereal boxes, to help hold up the overhanging sections of the top brick. You can just see the in the picture below. Simply a rectangle piece folded in half. (Note: I put the bottom cake on the green baseplate and frosted it. Then put the second cake on top and frosted it.)

To frost the studs without pulling my hair out, I skewered the top of the mini-cupcake with a fork and slathered frosting onto the sides. Since the sides sloped inward top to bottom, I put more frosting at the bottom than the top to make them appear straight up and down. I also tried to build up extra frosting at the top edge so the last step would be easier, then used the fork to position the stud onto the block.

 

Then I pressed down on the unfrosted top so I could pull the fork out. And finally I carefully frosted the top of the stud. If there was enough of a build-up of frosting around the top of the sides, then it was almost more like just filling in the hole in the middle, which made the studs look less domed and more like they had a flat circular top.

 

We added a few other Lego blocks, including some plates to cover up the cereal-box supports and a happy minifig to hold the sign one of the girls wrote.

And with that, I think it’s time for my next dose of my medicine cake. Yes, that’s what my girls are calling it. As in “Mama, can I have another piece of your medicine cake?”

Oh, and when I saw it cooling on the counter, at first I couldn’t figure out why it looked so squat. And large. “Oh, you baked it in a jelly roll pan,” I said. His reply: “I did what? That’s not the usual cake pan?” Oh how I love that man.

The Cross-Cultural Wedding Cakes

Since my cousin and her new husband have just celebrated their one-month anniversary this week, it’s probably time I post some cake pictures. Here’s one of their wedding cakes, very similar in structure to the one I made for a Marriage Retreat Weekend, except that I made the inserts wider. And since there were globes on every table (the groom is American, the bride is German), I decided to wrap the inserts with map paper.

The flowers were very much inspired by a photo of a cake Jana found online. I made sure to save the source so I could credit it when I wrote the inevitable blog post, but now I can’t find it again. Ack! So here’s a close-up of MY flowers, instead.

That’s a LOT of flowers. At the last minute, I called up some reinforcements – a few of the American Heritage Girls that I lead – and we had a grand time coloring and rolling and pressing and shaping.

The other cake, sort of a “groom’s cake,” was a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, or Black Forest Cherry Cake, a Bavarian specialty. I’d never made one before, probably because I’d tried a piece once, when I was about nine, and hated the taste. But cherry liqueur and I get along much much better now; I could eat this cake all day every day! So yummy!!!

Ooh, I wish I would’ve gotten a picture of the inside. It’s three layers of cherry-liqueur-drenched chocolate cake, divided by layers of cocoa cream filling and this amazing cherry compote. Mmm, methinks I should make another soon. Ooh, I also thought I could earn “Best Mom Ever” points at my kids’ German Immersion charter school by making Black Forest Cherry Cupcakes and leaving them in the teachers’ lounge. A cherry-liqueur flavored cupcake with a cone shape cut out of the top and filled with the cherry compote, then the cone shoved back into place (or eaten by me), and then the whole thing covered with the whipped cream icing, sprinkled with dark chocolate shavings. Doesn’t that sound yummy?!?

Oh and the topper on the cake: When Paul and Jana were here and we were discussing the cake, Paul discovered there wouldn’t be a topper on the “real” cake, other than the flowers. So that’s where the idea came to do this other cake, and someone suggested that they use Playmobile figures instead of buying a generic couple topper. (Playmobile – the quintessential German toy.) I sent them up to the toy area, thinking they’d come down with our “sporty” figures, since both of them are into fitness. They did grab the bike, then hitched it to the carriage and added a prince and princess. Clearly, both of them are also into silliness! Just take a look at their fun engagement photos on Facebook!

And finally, seeing the Playmobile sitting around the kitchen for a few days, my oldest was inspired to make a little stop animation video as a wedding present for them. So that’s what I’ll end with:

(Translation: “Ach du meine Guete!” is German for “Oh my goodness!”)

(And anyone who’s been visiting this blog for a year or more: did you recognize the folded star made from music sheets?)

More Birthday Cakes…

…for Ruthy and for Ken.

Ruthy, a young woman from Germany, is living with us while she interns at the girls’ school this semester. She’s fitting right in with the family and it’s a joy to have her here in our home.

For her birthday last week, I considered making her a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, because that’s what she always has at home. But I knew there was no way mine would taste anything like her moms, even if I could find all the necessary ingredient here. Besides, she’s in America, so needs an American birthday cake! : )

Ruthy is a HUGE soccer fan, specifically of her local team, Borussia Mönchengladbach. So I knew she’d love a soccer cake just like the one I made for goalkeeper Rachael.  And I knew the colors would have to be Borussia’s colors: black, white, and green.

I wanted to use Borussia’s distinctive “diamond B” logo somehow, so it became part of the word “Birthday.” Ruthy LOVED that part – asked that it be the LAST part to be eaten.

Across the front side, I wrote a phrase in German to remind her how we feel about her. “Volltreffer” is what the game announcers yell when a soccer player scores a perfect goal, right on target. While a literal English translation of the phrase – “You are a bull’s eye” – sounds a little funny, in German it is a sweet (sport-related) way to say “You’re great!”

And just like on Rachael’s cake, I hid the birthday girl’s new age in the soccer ball patches.

That’s a lot of candles. I hope Ruthy enjoys her 24th year, part of which will be spent with us!

And then just one week later, it’s was Ken’s birthday again. No elaborate pot of gold rainbow cake this year. Just a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting (his favorites), adorned with some space-themed Lego (to fit with his current favorite past time of playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii with the girls).

Man, how I love that guy!

Cute Graham Cracker Cottages

I had grand plans to host a “gingerbread” house decorating party with my neighbors this year like I did with my kids, nieces and nephews last year. And then I saw an article in the recent Family Fun Magazine with the same idea.

Only difference: their party used real gingerbread to construct the houses, baked and assembled by the host ahead of time. At my party, we used graham crackers! 20 rectangular crackers make a large house, like this one I made previously. And four rectangular crackers make a wee little cottage.

I hesitate to even write this post since I did a google image search for “graham cracker gingerbread house” and found loads of examples of houses made from four crackers. BUT…

None had overhanging eaves.

And I love overhanging eaves on my cottages.

So, here’s my little trick. For the side and the roof pieces, instead of the usual break-two-crackers-in-half approach, I saw just a little over one quarter off one side of the cracker. This small piece becomes the side of the house. And the almost-3/4s piece becomes the roof.

For the other two crackers, I saw the corners off to make a nice steeply-pitched gable.

My other trick, to keep them from toppling over when assembling them, is to start them off sideways. This probably only works since the side pieces are so short. I pipe the icing onto the backs of the gabled pieces, set the side pieces in place sticking straight up on one gabled pieces…

…then set the other gabled piece on top and stand it upright to finish drying.

A minute or two later, it’s ready for the roof. Icing goes all along the top edges (unlike photo where it’s only on half the edges)…

…and roof pieces are put in place, with a little more icing right along the top ridge.

Side note: that bit of pastry bag visible in a previous photo is a Wilton’s Disposable Decorating Bags with the tip snipped off and the other end closed off with a twist-tie. Great for little hands.

Now, the question is, once they’re covered in candy, are those lovely overhanging eaves of mine even noticeable any more?

When decorated by kids seven and under, not so much.

Hmm, maybe breaking them in half is the way to go after all. As least for a few more years while the emphasis is still on quantity over all else! : )

A Cake I Didn’t Make

It was my birthday last weekend. Had a wonderful… I was going to say “day” but really it was a whole weekend of loveliness. Spending time with my family. Going out for a Thai dinner, sans kids! Enjoying visits from old friends and new ones.

And eating cake. Lots of cake! One of which was made by my girls.

Oldest did the lettering.

Middlest did the blue flowers. Hmm, no photo of that step…

Youngest did some of the white dots for the border. And squirted large amounts into her palm, copying her older sister.

Rest of the white dots—and “mmy"—were done by a sweet neighbor, her first time wielding a pastry bag. Way to go, E!

Part of the brainstorming including the idea of sticking on Playmobile figures, which they’d seen me do on Sophie’s Castle cake. Why they stuck on fern-eating goats was never made quite clear to me.

But I sure did love that cake!

P.S. Other cakes (and cake-ish substances) ingested over the weekend included chocolate cake balls, Oma’s raspberry cottage cake, and peach tarts. Yum!

Rachael’s Soccer Cake

Has it been a while since I posted a cake? Here’s one that I made for one of our new neighbors recently, in exchange for a night of babysitting.

Rachael was so cute when she came over to ask – “maybe something to do with soccer? and I really like the color blue. want to come see my room? it’s all blue…”

Can you tell how old she was turning? Clue: look at the blue part of the soccer ball.

She plays goalie, so I added a little debossed goalie in the bottom corner.

And also added a fun play on words along the front side: “She’s a keeper!”

She loved the cake, but I think I got the better end of the deal. Not only did I have fun making the cake, but she is great with my kids! How lucky am I to have such super neighbors!

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The “making of” post(s) will follow shortly, if you’d like to try this at home but aren’t sure how… (And to remind myself for any next times…)

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P.S. Can you believe I gouged this cake with my finger too? Not nearly as bad as the last time, but still!