Rainbow M&M Birthday Cake

Guys. Kids' birthdays are the best. It's the best reason to make a cake, because cakes for kids are whimsical, colorful, and so much fun to make. And there is no better baking "audience" than a small child. They give honest reviews, and they only care about the taste of the sugary confection; they don't care if it sits perfectly straight on the plate, or the pink wasn't the exact shade you were hoping for, or if it sinks a little in the middle.

I made this cake last year for the 2nd birthday party for a good friend's daughter. She loves M&M's (understatement), so this cake was a no-brainer. We even involved the sweet little princess in the design process. We browsed Pinterest (she's a natural), and she zeroed in on the candy-covered cakes every time, so her mom and I decided to go with a small, tiered, colorful, candy-covered, rainbow cake. Colors on colors on colors.

This cake was such a delight to make, and the colored layers were surprisingly easy. Rainbow layers are a fun, simple way to dress up a cake for any occasion. And who says rainbow layers are only for 2-year-olds? Make one for an 80th birthday! Or a Wednesday! I'm sure this cake would be a hit at any time with any age.

To make this cake, start with any white cake batter that you like. Divide the batter into separate bowls (all you need is a bowl for each color). Add a few drops of color to each bowl. I chose to do a full rainbow, so I had 7 different colors. Start with a few drops, and add more as you mix until you reach the desired color (well, a little lighter; once baked, the color will be a teensy bit darker).

This color will darken a little with baking.

Bake the layers, and then assemble as you would normally assemble a layered, tiered cake. You might notice that I did not separate these tiers. The reasons for this are twofold. One: I wanted to be able to cut through the whole thing at once for the rainbow effect, and two: this cake was small enough and light enough that it didn't really need the extra support. It might have if it was going to sit out for a long time, but it was assembled and consumed within a few hours, so everything was hunky-dory.

You could just leave it frosted for a simpler cake, or decorate any way you desire. For this cake, I completely covered the cake in stripes of M&Ms (which was so much fun!). 

Needless to say, our darling birthday girl was delighted with her candy cake (her dentist probably not so much). She couldn't keep her little fingers out of the frosting, but it was her birthday, so we just let her have at it. As she should. The birthday girl gets what the birthday girl wants.

Happy birthday (last year and this year) to the most darling 3 year old I know!

Playing Catch Up - Project Snapshots

Often when I am working on a project, I will take plenty of pictures, compose a post, and diligently sit down to write it up within a reasonable amount of time.
Then there are all those other little things that I make in between. All the cakes, cupcakes, treats, snacks, or what-have-you that I don't take a bunch of pictures of, don't really have the time to write about on a Tuesday afternoon, or some that were even made pre-blog.

I don't think those projects deserve to get ignored or left all alone in the iPhoto archives, never to be drooled over, so here are some of my recent (or maybe not super recent) favorites. A series of mini-posts, if you will.

Colorful Bridal Shower "Margarita" Cake

This cake was for my best friend's bridal shower in 2010. They honeymooned in Mexico, so in anticipation of that, the shower was kinda Mexico themed. In a colorful, sangria, margarita, summery kind of way. The cake was white chocolate cake with raspberry filling for one tier, and coconut cake with lime curd filling for the other. I covered the layers with colorful fondant, cut little fondant limes slices, and garnished the whole thing with some glitter. Because glitter. You all know by now that if glitter is an option, then yes, glitter it will be.

50th Birthday Cupcakes

These were birthday cupcakes for my Mom's friend. Dark chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting. Sooooo-oooo-oooo good. The "50" toppers are hand-piped chocolate.

Golf Cupcakes

A going-away gift for a golf lover. These were very fun to make. Chocolate cupcakes (everyone likes chocolate cake), vanilla buttercream tinted green and piped with a grass tip, gumpaste golf balls, and little flags made from toothpicks and scrapbooking paper.

Football Cake Balls

This year my friends threw a Superbowl party. Naturally, I made something. Cake balls. Because cake balls are appropriate for literally every kind of event you could think of. I challenge you to think of something that you wouldn't bring cake balls to or eat cake balls at. (How many times can you say cake balls in a row without it being weird?)
These ones were chocolate shaped like footballs, covered with dark chocolate, and piped with little white laces.

Birthday Cake Balls

More cake balls! These ones were special for me, because they marked the first time that I shipped treats across the country...and they survived! A woman commissioned them for her brother's birthday. The recipient said they were still delicious and intact by the time they arrived in Wisconsin.
His sister said that his favorite color is blue, so I did some blue stripes, some with chocolate jimmies, and some with chopped pecans. A dozen of the cake balls were chocolate, and a dozen were red velvet. All were covered in a dark chocolate coating.

Puppy Birthday Cake

This cake was tons of fun. It was a commission from one of my students. Her mom asked if I could/would make her cake, and when I said that I would be delighted to, her daughter drew me a design. The design included yellow, red, turquoise, purple, a puppy, and writing. Kids should design all cakes; they have the best sense of fun. Anyhow, this is how it turned out.
The sheet cake part is lemon with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream, and the puppy face on top is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.
She loved it. And so did I. From now on, if it is possible for a kid to design a birthday cake, go with it.