Wyatt's Birthday

Wyatt is a big fan of two things: Soccer and Germany.

First thought: make a soccer ball cake.

Sound cliche? Well, Wyatt is the type where a soccer ball cake is the most fitting cake. He is one of the ultimate soccer fans. So what would make this soccer ball different? It would be the Jabulani ball, which is used in the World Cup. Here's the 2010 version:

So what about the German part... skip it? No, make a German Chocolate Cake! Unfortunately, I couldn't use the traditional ingredients AND make the cake look like the Jabulani ball. So I skipped the fancy coconut, caramel and pecan nonsense and opted for the plain ol' box from the grocery store.

For the icing, I chose cream cheese icing. I'm not sure why. It seemed right at the time. I also needed to make sure it was white for the ball's appearance.

Anyway, to assemble the ball, I used the same assembly as Sig's cake. Just bake the two layers, stack them (with an icing filling between), and start to carve. It works well to use a large knife and cut the sharp cylinder-like edges on the top layer off. Ice away!

With a white hemisphere cake finished, it's time to start decorating! For the dark stripes, I used chocolate sprinkles/jimmies. I would normally use food coloring, but it was $3 a bottle per color, so I opted for a cheaper fix. For the yellow stripe, again trying to be cheap, yet creative, I sorted through the bulk candy at Wegmans. I found a bin of Mike and Ikes and picked out all yellow ones.

It works best to construct stencils if you use sprinkles. The yellow Mike and Ikes were easy to place on after the sprinkles. The last touch was the Adidas logo. I cut this out of paper to make a stencil and filled the holes with sprinkles. That's about it! These steps take a bit of patience and slow work. But they are definitely worth the results.

And Wyatt showed up wearing a Germany jacket. Perfect.

Justin's Birthday

How about a Highlighter Party? For Justin's "surprise" birthday, I wanted to make a cake that would stand out in a room full of highlighters. I knew Tonic water contained quinine (which would glow). But that wasn't a sure way to make the entire cake glow. I decided to use a white icing to make sure it would have at least one glowing aspect even if the tonic water did not stand out in the batter.

Justin knew he was having a birthday party. What he didn't know is that all his guest would be wearing white in a room full of blacklights with highlighters to draw with. Normally, I try to make cakes extra personal. This was a tricky cake because I wanted it to go with the theme, yet still be personal. I figured the surprise party theme was a personal touch, so I decided to stick with that.

My mom once made an orange cake once that I still think about when picking a cake flavor. It was made with Jell-o. The cake was so moist and flavorful. It made other cakes seem plain. Since Justin's cake wouldn't have a specific shape, I decided to make the flavor special.

I set off to Wegmans in search of a cake mix and box of Jell-o. I would use tonic water in the Jell-o in hopes of a little bit of glow. With the cake having a strong flavor, I decided to use a light icing, seven minute frosting.

At first, I grabbed the orange cake mix and set off to find orange Jell-o, remembering my mother's success. But the Jell-o isle had a little surprise for me. There, in a special stand, was a new set of flavors: Strawberry Daquiri, Pina Colada, and Margarita. After some pondering, I decided to go with Margarita, in hopes the green color would light up in the blacklight. I switched the orange cake for a box of white cake. Anyway, here's how to make it...

First, bake your cake, but replace the required water with tonic water. Once it is cooked, leave it in the pan (I made two 9-inch layers. If you make two, apply the Jell-o step to both layers). While it cools, mix up the Jell-o but only with hot water. It will be more concentrated this way, and will prevent the cake from getting too "moist". After you have prepared your Jell-o mix, take a butter knife or fork and poke holes into the cake for the Jell-o to seep through. Pour the Jell-o over the cake, making sure to coat it evenly. Promptly refrigerate the cake (still in the cake pan).

I was low on time, so I decided to speed up the process by putting the cake in the freezer. You can do this if you're in a pinch. Although, I would recommend sticking with the refrigerator. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, with four of us sharing a freezer, but I moved some stuff around and made it work.

Next, make your icing. That way, the cake will be cool by the time you go to ice it.

In the seven minute frosting, I also replaced the water with tonic water. It didn't change the taste enough to bother me. But a little extra vanilla may do the trick if you find it tastes bitter.

[As you may notice, I don't have a double boiler. This works just as well, though!]

Ice the cake and enjoy! For some reason, I don't have a final picture of this cake. It must not have been noteworthy. I think it looked like Courtney's cake minus the decorations, and with the two layers stacked.

It did glow a little in the blacklight, but mostly due to the white icing. Maybe someone else can figure out a way to make the cake glow? Let me know if you find anything!