Make My Son's Birthday Cake

As stated in the last post, one of the things I wanted to do in 2012 was:

"Make a fancy cake for my son's 2nd birthday (and by fancy, I mean not one that comes in a 9x13 pan). I am not a creative baker, but I loathe the idea of paying someone else to do something I can do myself."

This is last year's cake:

 But I really wanted to top this. I started by asking my mother, who possesses the hidden talent of cake decoration, for her help, and asking a dear friend with an eBay business if she had any Wilton cake pans appropriate for my task. She said she had a gumball machine, which sounded perfect for my first project. So, about three days before the party, I assembled my ingredients, which included confetti cake mix (Aldi, $.99), oil, eggs, water, and my borrowed cake pan:

I assembled the ingredients and poured:

And then I baked, removed from the oven, let cool, and waited with baited breath to see whether the cake would come cleanly out of the pan:

Yay! Thank you, Lord (and I did say a few prayers beforehand!) Per my mother's instruction, I wrapped the cake in plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer. During this process the cake split right between the globe and the base, but I shoved it together as best I could, wrapped it and placed it in the freezer where it stayed for about 48 hours. The day before the party my mom came to my house and we whipped out the big guns, which included fancy cake decorating bags, tips, and icing coloring (courtesy of my mother-in-law and a friend of my mom's--thanks ladies!). I had purchased red icing for $.79 on clearance right after Christmas at Aldi, so we didn't have to color the red.

We iced the bottom VERY slowly using my mom's method of using a butter knife, (I didn't have one of those straight flat metal ones, whatever they are called) dipping it in hot water, and smoothing out the rough spots. We then died some white frosting yellow and put on the letters. We used M&Ms for the gumballs and even hid one in the opening! My mom then cut away the waxed paper to clean it up a little.

Once it was done, I realized the top to my cake-carrier would not fit over the cake. We were still a day and a half away from the party, so it had to be covered. My mom had the brilliant idea of putting toothpicks in the cake and putting plastic wrap over the toothpicks. This worked perfectly and the finished product:

Did I mention how drastic the price difference was between what you see above and what you would purchase at the store? I spent a grand total of $5.76. I just checked HyVee's website and their cakes start at $22.99. That's a savings of $17.03! And I get the sweet feeling of accomplishment that comes along with hard work and success. 

Take Aways: 

• It is much easier to frost a cake frozen (thanks Mom!) than fresh.
• I had a BLAST doing this! It was out of my comfort zone, but I had an excellent guide in my mother, and it was a great thing for us to do together.
• Turns out my son will eat cake no matter what it looks like. :)