All Squares: A Minecraft Birthday for My Brother-In-Law

I am so sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. I promise I haven't forgotten about the blog...or YOU!

I'm going through a season where it feels like I'm watching life fly by like a movie. Time goes by too fast, especially with a little one. I keep wanting to hit pause to savor different moments but my remote seems to be broken! Someone please fix it!

I recently had the honor of making a birthday cake for one of my brother-in-laws. He just turned 8.

No, that is not a typo. He is 8. And he is awesome.

Here it is!

Minecraft Birthday Cake with Cupcakes

Happy Birthday Shane!
(That is what I wanted the words to say but my "P" wasn't cooperating)

P.S. If you don't know, Minecraft is a computer game. I've played it a few times and it's really fun! 

I guess it's super popular now!

For my first crack at a themed cake, I am very proud of it! I know it will be one of those pictures that I try to hide 3 years from now when I've had a bit more practice, but I will enjoy/be proud of this while I can!

Although this cake took me hours, and hours, and hours to make...the best part was bringing it into the room and seeing the reaction on Shane's face. He is a tough critic too, so I was nervous. To my delight, he was ecstatic.

Yikes.
Imagine what goes on in my brain.
Yikes Squared. Poor Eric.

I made a vanilla cake and stacked into a 5 inch square. I filled and iced it with swiss meringue buttercream (which is truly the best!) No more american buttercream...ever.

In fact, my other brother-in-law, Ryan (he is 10), took a bite of the cake and said it was the best cake he had ever had! Woohoo!

I made homemade marshmallow fondant to cover the outside and make the figurines. Steve, a Creeper (green thing), and TNT.

Fun Fact:
Fondant acts as a seal to keep the cake and buttercream fresh!

This is the good stuff. The kids immediately started picking off the TNT and eating it :0)!

Shane even wanted his mom to freeze Steve so he could keep him forever. Heart melt!

Lesson about Fondant: It is not great for modeling. My figures were super soft...even after leaving them out overnight. Next time, I'll have to mix in a bit of tylose powder or gum paste to help it along. 

I wanted Shane to feel special, which is why the cake is so small. That was HIS cake. Everyone else got to enjoy the cupcakes ;0)!

CUPCAKES! Vanilla with Swiss Meringue Buttercream!

This is what baking is all about. Bringing people joy. I am VERY excited to see what the future has in store :0). Believe me when I say...this is just the beginning! More to come very soon!

Love You All! Take Care and God Bless!

Guest Blogger - My Husband: A Funfetti Birthday Cake!!

I've been reading all of Kina's blogs and I knew that, as her birthday wish, she wanted nothing more than me to bake her a cake.

The first time she made a funfetti cake from scratch didn't turn out so well (it tasted like spongy cardboard).  I can make fun of that one because all the rest have been amazing!

For me, I wouldn't make the same funfetti mistake - I chose a recipe that I knew I could trust.

I'm actually pleased with how this picture turned out - call me up Pillsbury Doughboy, I'll be your photographer

I really did think about making a cake from scratch myself...but I knew I could mess this one up enough to still prove the point that baking (and decorating) is difficult.

For starters, the box doesn't differentiate which 'oil' you should use.

Choices, choices, choices

I also had no clue what "shortening" was (still don't).  They wanted me to grease the pan with it.  Where I'm from, we call that butter.

Yeah, that's probably enough

The box told me to use the mixer to mix the ingredients - but I was scared to break it.  So I used my hands (like a man).

...And it was very tiring - but still manly

I took it out of the oven 9-minutes early because it looked done.  Kina even walked in and put a toothpick in it and agreed.  My 6th baking sense helped me out.

Looking good

Now, back in the day, I'd pour some frosting on and cut it out from here - but, from watching Kina, I know real bakers frost the whole thing (sides and all).  So all I had to do now was to let it cool and then dump it out and frost it.

But only that much came out - why did it stick to the pan?

So my butter didn't work as I had hoped.

To make up for that error, I cut the whole cake in half and now decided to make it a 'layered' cake.  I stole some of Kina's old cream cheese frosting from the fridge so I could put it in between the cake pieces (hopefully to make the destroyed part stick to the rest of the cake).

But I didn't have very much cream cheese frosting so I got that

At this point, I was pretty confused as to how real bakers spread frosting without having half their cake be ripped apart.  Kina then told me that you need to let your cake cool.  That made perfect sense to me.  But I wanted to finish my project - so I pushed through - it could cool as I worked.

This side view shows that I should have let the cake cool

Finally, I was able to "pipe" words on the top of the cake with the left over stolen cream cheese frosting.  This was my favorite part - I think I nailed it.

The circles cover up holes in the cake

Happy Birthday Kina!  I love you very much.  I am very glad you are the baker of the family - I'm inadequate in that area.

Torrey and I are so grateful for you and we cherish every day with you.

Thanks for letting me steal your Blog for the day!