It’s almost my granddaughter Lily’s 9th birthday… her requirements for a cake this year are chocolate with chocolate fudge frosting, star shaped with black & white zebra print and purple somewhere on it. I received the Rockin’ invitation that was covered with a multi-colored zebra print design, peace sign, and a guitar on it. The birthday party is going to be held at a roller rink; then back to the house for pizza and birthday cake. Fun stuff!
Rockin’ birthday invitation for 9th birthday party.
Let’s see….how do I include all those things in a cake. I started with a the star-shaped cake. I didn’t have a star-shaped pan and don’t really care for the ones out there. So, as always, my next stop was the computer. I typed “How to make a star -shaped cake” into Google and wouldn’t you know it? There’s a blog about how to go about making a star with two round cakes. Fantastic! I didn’t have to go buy a pan; instead I got to bake the cake with pans I already owned. Gotta love that!
I baked, wrapped and froze the chocolate layers as is and would follow the star making directions when putting the cake together. As for the rest of the design; I settled on making a second layer using a small 6″ round cake.
My first idea of the star cake drawn on computer.
My plan was to cover the star layer in a black and white zebra patterned fondant. With purple fondant I would cover the small round cake and bring some of the colorful designs from the invitation to the sides of this layer. I usually like some height to my cakes. So, I think I’ll make a black and white guitar to set on the top of the cake. I had the idea to make some cake pops, using the extra cake I will be cutting off to make the star. I haven’t made them before, but I’ll give it a try. I thought I’d decorate them with the colors of the cut-out designs and put them around the guitar.
The day before the party comes… Before the cake layers are totally thawed, I used a serrated knife to cut one round cake into 6 even slices. I then cut off the rounded edge of each cake slice to make perfect triangles. The other round cake I cut into a pentagon. Each of the five sides being equal to the wide end of the triangles. Using fudge frosting I attached the star points to the pentagon and I had a star! Nice!
Close up of the zebra stripes and colorful, sugared cutouts on purple fondant layer.
After frosting the cake I covered the star with white homemade marshmallow fondant. I did learn that you have to move very fast when making the black zebra stripes. They tend to want to dry out pretty quick (I’ll try and figure out a faster way next time I make a zebra print cake. Maybe actually make a pattern on the computer first to take out a lot of thinking time). The smaller round cake got covered in purple fondant and placed on the middle of the star.
Next, I cut out stars, lightning bolts and flower shapes from brightly colored fondant and stuck them to the side around the cake using fondant paste.
On to the cake pops… I have to say they did not work out. I was able to get them made, cooled, get the stick in them, but then when I tried to dip them in colored chocolate they kept falling off the stick! To be honest I didn’t like the texture very much anyway.
I moved on to the guitar. I wanted it to be dry enough to stand up on the cake, with a little help from a wooden pick. I had found some clipart of a guitar and sized it to fit my needs. This I used as a pattern. I made the guitar out of black gum paste and detailed it with white fondant and white edible pearls. When it was finished I set it aside to dry.
Cake topper of guitar and candy flower lollipops set in multi-colored decorator’s sugar.
Now I had to figure out what else to use instead of the cake pops. All I could think of was to stick to a pop of some kind… I know candy pops! Whew, now that that was figured out; I could go to bed and start fresh in the morning.
So, bright and early I ran out to JoAnn’s, which is just a couple of miles from my house, and bought a flower candy mold and white Candy Melts. I already had candy colors at home to color the lollipops to match the cutouts already on the cake. I got home and immediately colored the candy and made the lollipops. Luckily the candy flowers set up quick in the refrigerator. I’m feeling better about things now. Still plenty of time before delivering the cake.
I wanted some sparkle on the cake and decided to add some decorators sugar to the cutouts and the center of the flower pops. To make the sugar stick I painted the area with clear piping gel and covered it with the colored sugars.
Rockin’ guitar birthday cake for nine year old!
I thought the top of the cake needed something. So, I mixed all the colored sugars together. After painting a large flower on the top of the cake with piping gel I poured the sugar over the flower and let it set for a while, before carefully brushing off the excess sugar.
The final touch was to pipe some white frosting around the bottom of the star to finish off and soften the cake some.
I added the guitar and lollipops so I could get some photos of the cake before packing up to get to the party.
The cake turned out pretty close to my original drawing. Love when that happens! This cake also traveled really well….I’m learning! I just took the topper off until setting up the cake at the party.
Happy Birthday Lily!
