Cake #24 - Meghan's Irish Green Layered Birthday Cake

Cake #24 - Meghan's Irish Green Layered Birthday Cake


 
So Meg wanted just a "green" cake for her birthday. Her birthday is right around St. Patrick's Day and being, well, a Patrick, an Irish green was a great idea. To fancy it up, I decided it had to have an edible green pearl decorations on top, instead of writing, and it  must have something "special" inside--colored layers. We used the square cake pans and did a double layer and split each with frosting in between all four layers. I had done this on many other cakes lately, but the color differential had not been so great as to make the layers obvious. So this time I decided we would do green on the outside and yellow and green (which turned out to be more of an aqua) on the inside.

 After baking and cooling my square layers I split each with my cake knife.After freezing the 4 layers for a bit to harden the crumbs for frosting,  I put them together sealed with a thin layer of the buttercream frosting I made before I tinted the majority of the frosting green. This cake large as it was required doubling my cake recipe, and tripling my frosting recipe; this is because I put it inside, and thickly all around the sides--tall cake as it was--and used my huge star tip to create the border and the thick pattern on the corners of the top.

 After frosting it thickly, the top needed something. I didn't want any writing on this one (as I would have had to make another batch of a contrasting color) so I used my edible pearls which I happened to have in a pastel green. Perfect. (This case was my inspiration for Jack's Birthday Hockey Cake - Cake #14 by the way.)

 Loved the look (and taste) of the colored layers, but alas this cake was far too much for our little family to eat. I think I may have put some in the freezer, come to think of it. I may go hunting for it tonight! Yum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

Cake #22 - 4th of July Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Cake #22 - Not really a cake...4th of July Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

This one's not complicated, but it is delicious and a fun way to celebrate our red, white and blue events such as 4th of July. It starts with dry, room temperature strawberries with stems attached, and a container of white chocolate candy melts (meant for fruit dipping, so they are easily meltable). You  can get these easily at the grocery store usually in the produce department. (The other chocolate candy melts you can get at the craft stores should work equally well if that's your preference.)

I bought 2 different white chocolate containers. I melted the first batch in the microwave, one minute at a time, stirring well each time. I then dipped all the berries in the white, leaving a portion of the red visible.  You just leave them on wax paper a few minutes to dry and harden.

Then I melt the 2nd container and tint it blue with food coloring.I then re-dip the tip of each berry so that the red, white and blue layers/stripes are about equal, let them dry on the wax paper and when finished, assemble them into a fun display tray of some sort. This batch yielded enough for 2 trays.   Fini.