Month: July 2011

Hey ya’ll – Family Fun just emailed me some more creative cake ideas and I thought I’d pass on my favorites to you. (Family Fun didn’t email me specifically, it was a mass email – I didn’t want you to think I was someone special or anything. HA!)

Boom Box Cake

This rockin’ cake makes the perfect accompaniment to any party.

Ingredients
2 baked loaf cakes
3 cups yellow frosting
2 large mint patties (speakers)
Fruit leather (tape and CD players)
Assorted candies, such as Pez, Spree, sour rings, Good & Plenty, and Jujubes (various knobs, controls, and handles)
2 long, thin candles (antennae)
shoestring licorice (trim)

Instructions
For the boom box shape, cut off one of the long edges from one loaf cake at a slight angle. Use frosting to stick the 2 pieces to the second cake, as shown. Ice the entire cake with yellow frosting.

For the speakers, use a toothpick to score a criss-cross pattern on the 2 large mint patties.

Cut 2 squares of fruit leather for the tape and CD players and use a variety of small candies for the control buttons. Next, add 2 long, thin candles for antennae and outline the cake with shoestring licorice.

---

Artist’s Palette Cake

The budding artists at your child’s party can paint their cake and eat it too. Make sure to have extra “brushes” on hand for party guests.

Ingredients
1 baked 9-inch round cake
2 cups white frosting
Gel icing, assorted colors
Fruit leather
1 licorice twist

Instructions
Trim the edges of the cake as shown and cover it with white frosting. Using a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out a thumbhole in the palette and frost the insides.

Next, use the cutter to lightly mark the circles in the frosting, then fill with gel icing “paints.”
To make the brush, wrap the fruit leather around the base of the licorice twist and fringe the ends.

---

Pool Party Cake

Make this cake and we guarantee your guests won’t hesitate to plunge right in.

Ingredients
1/2 gallon quality ice cream (any flavor)
1 1/3 8.5-oz. pkgs. fudge sticks (chocolate or peanut butter)
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Blue food coloring
Gummy rings
Gobstoppers
Paper umbrellas
Plastic figures
Licorice
Decorators’ frosting

Instructions
Begin by making the ice-cream base of the pool cake. Let the ice cream soften at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes, then ask your kids to help you spoon it into an 8-inch round springform pan, souffle dish, or plastic container. Pack the ice cream into the mold and smooth out the top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.

After the ice cream has frozen solid, unmold it by dipping the container quickly into a pan of hot water; if necessary, you can also loosen the edges of the ice cream with a knife. Invert the mold onto a large plate and carefully lift off the pan to reveal the ice-cream cake.

Your kids can then carefully place the fudge sticks (we alternated plain and chocolate-peanut butter) along the sides of the ice-cream pool cake, the cookies will resemble the panels of an aboveground pool. Return the cake to the freezer while you prepare the whipped cream.

To make the blue whipped cream waves, pour the cold heavy cream into a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the cream begins to thicken and soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until stiff. Mix in several drops of blue food coloring. Frost the top of the frozen cake with the blue whipped cream, then return it to the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes or until set.

Next, let your kids turn the cake into a bustling pool with gummy ring inner tubes, Gobstopper beach balls, paper umbrellas, and plastic swimmers. Add a licorice ladder with licorice rungs (use decorators’ frosting to glue it together).

Now it’s time to take the plunge into the pool cake. For best results, serve it immediately and do not let it stand at room temperature for long. Store leftovers in the freezer. Feeds 10 to 12 hungry swimmers.

You can find more tips for this recipe here.

---

Under the Sea Cake

This whimsical underwater scene can be decorated in one swish of a mermaid’s tail.

Ingredients
1 baked 13″ x 9″ x 2″ cake
2 to 3 cups blue icing
Green apple Sour Belts
Blue and/or green fruit leather
Candy rocks
Candy seashells
Gummy sea creatures, such as fish, sharks, and octopuses
Mini Swedish fish
Sour tropical fish

Instructions
Bake your favorite cake (13″ x 9″ x 2″). Frost the cake with the icing.

To create plants, roll or twist various lengths of sour belts and fruit leather before placing them on the cake.
Place candy rocks and seashells along the bottom.

Finish off your underwater scene by arranging schools of gummy fish, sharks, and other deep-sea dwellers.

---

Just Ducky Tub Cake

Touch the tops of the rubber duckies’ heads, they’ll bob in the jiggly Jell-O Jiggler water.

Ingredients
2 3-ounce boxes of Berry Blue Jell-O gelatin
2 9- by 13-inch cakes
2 16-ounce tubs of white frosting
Licorice pipe
2 large marshmallows and 8 mini marshmallows
Decorators’ gel
1 or 2 small rubber ducks

Instructions
Prepare both boxes of gelatin according to the Jiggler recipe on the packages. Pour the mixture into an 8-inch square pan and chill it. Halfway through the chilling time (about 45 to 50 minutes), whisk the gelatin vigorously to create ripples and bubbles, then let it finish chilling.

Stack the cakes, spreading a thin coating of icing between them. Trim the corners to create more of a rounded tub shape. Next, carve out a 1 1/2-inch-deep basin, using a knife to first outline it and a spoon to scoop out the cake. Leave a 2-inch-wide border around the sides and end of the tub and a slightly wider border where the faucets will go.

Frost the tub, including the walls but not the floor of the basin. Now, for a faucet, turn the licorice pipe upside down and insert the thin portion of the stem into the wall of the basin, as shown.

For each faucet knob, use kitchen scissors to snip 4 V-shaped notches in the top of a regular-size marshmallow, then gently press a mini marshmallow into each notch, as shown. The freshly cut marshmallow surface will be sticky enough to keep the pieces in place. Place the knobs atop the cake and use decorators’ gel to label them H and C and outline the bases.

Spoon the Jiggler water into the basin and set the duck or ducks afloat.

---

School Bus Cake [This recipe also comes with a video – click link to watch]
(This would be a fun back-to-school party cake!)

You’ll have no trouble getting your kids on board when it comes to decorating and devouring this back-to-school dessert.

Ingredients
2 loaf cakes (pound cake or banana bread works well)
2 cups white frosting
Yellow food coloring
White chocolate chips
4 mini chocolate-covered doughnuts
Round cookie wafers
Black decorating gel
Small red gumdrops
Red Hots

Instructions
Trim the top and sides of one cake to straighten them, if needed. Spread a bit of frosting onto the center of a serving plate and set the trimmed cake upside down on top of it (to keep the cake from sliding).

Trim the sides and top of the second cake to straighten them. Then slice off a 1 1/2-inch-thick piece from one end and use the remaining portion for the top of the bus, frosting the bottom and setting it atop the first cake.

Spread a thin layer of white frosting over the whole cake to seal in any crumbs and let it set for about 15 minutes.

Spread more white frosting on the sides of the top layer (the windows of the bus). Reserve about a teaspoon of white frosting, then tint the rest yellow and use it to frost the rest of the cake.

For tires, use dabs of frosting to attach white chocolate chip hubcaps (tips down) to the centers of the mini doughnuts and then to stick the tires onto the bus.

Transform cookie wafers into people using white frosting and black gel to create eyes. Trim some red gumdrops for smiles, then press the cookie faces onto the cake.

Finally, add details such as black gel lettering, Red Hots for caution lights, and white chocolate chip headlights.

You can find many more cake ideas here.