Under The Sea Birthday Cake

My daughter turned 4 last week, and requested an under the sea Birthday party.  She also has this stuffed, glowing, musical seahorse that she has had since she was 6 months old.  She calls it her baby, more specifically her blue baby, since she has previously owned a pink baby in the past.

Anyway, her favorite color is purple and so she requested to have a birthday cake with a purple baby on it.  I’ve drawn this damn seahorse thing so many different times, at baby girls request, so I was most definitely up for the “challenge” of putting a purple baby on a cake.  She also requested chocolate cake and blue icing.  Done deal baby girl!

First I sketched out my plan on a piece of paper, and made sure to color it in.  Although I didn’t follow my plan 100%, it’s always good to have a visual of your plan, and make sure the colors actually go to together.  See what works and what doesn’t.  It’s better to make your mistakes on a piece of paper, rather then your cake.

I started with a boxed chocolate cake mix.  I’m not gonna lie to you, I almost always use cake mixes.  They taste really good, and you can up the anti on them if you so desire by just adjusting some of the added ingredients.  Plus, lets be honest, the cake is just a vehicle for the icing, fruit topping, whipped cream, candy bars or whatever other tasty treats you plan to put on or around your cake region.  I baked one 9×11 chocolate cake using melted butter instead of oil.  Sometimes I add extra eggs then what is recommended, but since the cake was for a childs birthday I figured no one would really notice or care if it was more decadent.  After I let the cake cool, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and but it in the freezer for an hr or two.  This helps with the frosting process.

I put about one cup of butter in my stand mixer and whipped it on high.  I do that until it is all airy and white.  Maybe 5 minutes?  I don’t really time it.  Just turn it on high and do other random things in my kitchen while checking on it often.  After it’s all white and whipped to my liking, I add about 1/3 cup of icing/powdered sugar at a time and turn the mixer on low until it’s mixed in, then whip again and repeat until the frosting is a texture I like.  Then, if I’m in the mood, I’ll add vanilla extract or maybe a different flavor extract and whip it again.  I’ll check again that the texture is agreeable to me.  Be advised not to make your icing too stiff which basically just means you’ve added way too much sugar and your frosting will be very sweet!

In this particular case I purposely didn’t add quite enough sugar before portioning out the frosting that I needed for the blue water frosting.  I then added some blue jello mix, a few table spoons at a time, while checking for a tasty flavor that I liked.  I really didn’t want my frosting to be too sweet, so I was very careful about not adding too much sugar, especially before adding sugary jello mix.  I added a couple drops of blue food coloring to get the right color that I was looking for.

After I scooped out the blue frosting and cleaned my bowl, I added the remaining frosting back to the mixer, added the rest of the desired icing sugar, and then portioned out the frosting to add food coloring to afterwards.

My assorted frosting colors, and a giant plate of chocolate chip cookies!

So much explaining, but all of this can be overwhelming and confusing at times.

I took the cake out of the freezer, unwrapped it and placed it on a dish that I planned to serve it on.  I took a small spatula, and iced the entire thing.  I initially wanted to make the frosting all smooth, and pipe a colored boarder, but I ended up making wave like strokes which I really liked so I went with that instead.  When I was done with the blue I put the entire cake in the fridge, uncovered, to chill.

Because I used real butter for the frosting, it gets hard when chilled, and is a lot easier to set.  Once the frosting was hard, I traced out the seahorse with a toothpick, then piped on all of the details.

I bought a black icing to trace out the whole thing, but again, I changed my mind, and ended up just using it for the more obvious details.

Finished product

Overall I was pretty pleased with the outcome, and it was not hard to make at all.  Just required a little dish washing and time chilling in the fridge.  Baby girl seemed pleased with the results as well, and that is all that matters!

On a side note, here is some of the under the sea decor we had.  Prior to the party we all sat down as a family and made the sea creatures, which baby girl loved being a part of.  Isn’t it cute?

12 Random Days of Christmas – Day 2

It is now day 2 of my 12 Random Days of Christmas list.  God I love a good list!

If you missed Day 1 click here.

Day 2 – Decorations

I was the first in my family and on the block with a Christmas tree up.  I figured, hey, I love Christmas so why not make it last as long as I possibly can?  Maybe no one else wants Christmas month but I DO!  I wait all year for this awesomeness, so I plan to enjoy the crap out of it!!

I also love decorating and making things look pretty so this is basically two birds with one stone for me.  When I can no longer hold it anymore, I head to the basement to drag up our Christmas boxes and tree.  Opening those boxes filled with ornaments makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

-pun not intended…  who am I kidding, I totally intended that!-

Hanging all the ornaments on the tree, putting out all of the candles and snow globes, replacing regular kitchen towels with red and green ones.  It’s all good stuff.  We moved into a new house this year so I had the added excitement of figuring out where I will put everything.  Oh the decisions!

My tree in all it’s glory

Special Christmas dishes that you can place cookies, crackers or a cheese ball aka Cheese Cane (Stay tuned for an explanation of that one.).  Punch bowls, fancy cutlery, color coordinated platters, table cloths, printed napkins…  Is anyone else getting worked up reading this?  Just me?!

Plate I painted at Clay Cafe with cookies baby girl and I made

The decorating doesn’t stop on the inside of the house though.  All of those sparkling lights, reindeer pulling sleighs, inflatable snowmen and waving Santas, and don’t forget the wreaths hanging on the doors.  So many different wreaths!  I love feeling inspired and seeing all of the cool decorating ideas people can come up with is pretty amazing.  Eye candy for sure!  If you love wreaths as much as I do check out these wreaths that I made with my own two beautiful lady hands.

To purchase these or more of my delightfuls, check out The Bellus Boutique on Etsy.

Unfortunately we don’t have any exterior decorations with the exception of a wreath on the door.  For shame, I know!  What kind of Christmas spirit lady am I anyway?  Well I want lights, I really do, but with all of our renting, moving, saving money for the next thing; exterior decorations were unfortunately never a priority.  That all changes this year, well, this Boxing Day anyway.  For you Americans, that’s like our Black Friday but on December 26th.  Until next Christmas, the outside of my house will remain nude!