My Birthday Cake

First rule in baking: Always be prepared! But there are always times when ingredients or utensils are not available so always keep an open mind and be ready for some experimenting! Today, I had the fortunate opportunity to experiment with icing techniques since I forgot my icing spatula at my mothers after I made her birthday cake there. I had seen many pastry chefs use icing bags and large tips to apply icing to their cakes so i decided that it might work for me as well. It did not I'm sorry to say. But I kept an open mind and used a spoon to smooth the icing. It worked! The icing looked like small snow drifts which worked well with my Christmas theme.
For the cake itself, I decided on a vanilla cinnamon and peanut butter chocolate since the cake was a checkerboard cake. A checker board cake looks exactly like a checkerboard except vertical and more tasty! I also decided on a vanilla rum butter cream icing. I only used a shot to give the icing a kick and it worked great with the smooth vanilla extract but I wouldn't use it in a child's cake.
Then, for my decorations, I wanted to show my most favorite holiday; Halloween. After last halloween, walmart had a huge clearance sale, which is where I picked up my Wilton Pumpkin Face silicone cupcake molds. I used the peanut butter chocolate for the eyes, noses, and mouths and dyed the vanilla cinnamon orange for the bodies. Although, the mold said non-stick, it was not. I had a really hard time getting my little pumpkins out of the mold in one piece but what didn't come out perfect are spoils for the chef. And I do have to say they were rather tasty too!

 This is the beginning of my vanilla rum butter cream. 3 cups of powdered sugar. 1 cup butter. 1 tsp. vanilla extract. and a shot of your favorite rum.

 This is my cake stacked up with icing inbetween layers to help hold the structure together. See how the rings are alternating? That is how you get the checkerboard effect when you pull a slice out of the cake.

 This was my finished product. I tinted some of the vanilla rum icing green because it's my favorite color.

 Now comes the moment of truth!

MMMMMMMM tasty!
And speaking of tasty things, I found Gingerbread Marshmallows that went perfectly on top of my cake. I had originally planned to make a gingerbread house on top of my cake but I found that when it came down to it, I wouldn't eat it. But I still wanted to represent my growing family, and these little gingerbread marshmallow people were the perfect compromise.
All in all, the cake turned out wonderful, but it's not what I had imagined in my head. I really want to try fondant but it just wasn't possible with my tight budget. I'll have to experiment with that next time but my next cake order isn't until next month for my younger cousin so I'm going to learn how to do different icing techniques from the internet and experiement with those until it comes time to fill my cousins order. Come back next week because I'll find out how to do icing roses and more but will the internet instructions be enough? Find out next time on Oh My Gnosh!