My Threadcakes Cake 2009

In general I don't spend a lot of time fussing with cakes and decorating -- I throw a few ingredients together, sprinkle on a topping and bake. It usually stays in the container until someone wants a piece.

Saving Time

I figured the biggest time saver would be to use packaged cake mixes (thank goodness I did). I bought three: one with colored sprinkles, one vanilla and one chocolate (I had wanted orange but they were out). The base is the sprinkles, the cow is chocolate and the chick is vanilla. Other items: three containers of icing (2 white, 1 chocolate), a bag of coconut, 2 sheets of rice paper for stencil, a metal decorating tip, and a icing bag.

Day One

I baked all the cakes: one oblong, one square, one small rectangle and two circles. I wanted to make sure I had extra in case I messed up the cake carving. I made up the green icing and decorated the base. I cooled all cakes in the fridge or freezer over night. I used the rice paper to make my cow and chick stencil.

Day Two

I was the carving day. Much to my surprise carving the cake was pretty easy. I didn't use nearly as much cake as I thought I would. So we have a lot of cake (I broke up extra and put in a freezer bowl to use for trifle at a later date)! The tough part came when I was trying to ice the cow and chick. The cake suddenly became crumbly and messed up the icing. They turned out a bit bigger than I planned because I had to add extra layers of icing. This also made making the cow's legs incredibly hard. The chick parts are made from frozen icing. The cow is covered in coconut to look like fur and I hand decorated the spots and features with the icing bag and tip.

The Fun Parts

Out of the whole process I enjoyed making the colored icing, decorating the green base and adding the cow spots and features.

Mangia!

I'm not much of a cake eater so it was no feat on my part to wait but my husband, nicknamed "mangiacake" by family members, had a hard time waiting. There were threats around every corner about disappearing cake but he held out and it was worth it. I almost felt guilty cutting into the little cow. "A Birth Day" is yummy (and sweet).