My son turned 8 this August and asked for a Pokemon birthday cake, so using a great new skill I found with the help of Pinterest this is the cake I made for him.
We have a tradition of making cakes for my kids and it is something that they look forward every year and sometimes I wonder how I am going to make what they ask for, this trick was a life saver!
I used a regular box cake mix and baked it into 2 8" rounds. After about 10 minutes of cooling I removed them from their pans to finish cooling on racks. With a bread knife I cut the domed top off of the base so that the top would sit on it flat. After the cake was completely cooled I started to frost.
I refuse to buy frosting when it is so easy to make, so I made a quick batch of butter cream frosting.
Frosting:
1 lb or so of powdered sugar
1/2 stick of butter softened (1/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
about 1/4 cup of warm water/milk (for this cake I used water)
In a mixing bowl add vanilla and about a cup of the powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer until blended. Add a pinch of salt and the vanilla. Alternate adding the liquid and the remaining powdered sugar a cup at a time mixing well after each addition until you reach your desired consistency. The great thing about making your own is you can control how much sugar and how much liquid you put in. Once you have your bowl of frosting then you get to make colors! I always like to leave white in my big bowl and pull out frosting for the other colors in case you have to make a different color later that you forgot while you were mixing, it just saves from having to make a completely new batch of frosting, and if you find you need more frosting, you can just add more ingredients into the frosting you have instead of starting over or making a bunch of colored frosting you wanted white.
Once you have your yummy frosting that you sampled to make sure it wasn't poison... then you can layer your cake. On the base put a layer of frosting on the top and place the top layer in place. Then frost all around the sides of the cake and finish with the top. I wanted a smooth finish on the top because I made the transfer.
Now this was the new part for me and I will never have to freehand with frosting again!
Go online and pick a coloring page for whatever you want on the cake. Find a piece of glass that will completely fit over the image and then wash the glass. Tape the coloring sheet facing up like it would if you were framing it to the underside of the glass. Then tape a piece of Wax Paper on the top of the piece of glass, you should still be able to see your image.
I sprayed a paper towel with non-stick cooking spray and coated the wax paper, I don't know if this was necessary but I wanted to make sure the frosting came off when I needed it to...
Mix the colors you need from the left over frosting if you haven't already. An easy way to make your own piping bag is to use a zip top bag and clip the corner. You can use whatever decorating tip you want and slide down in the hole (Make sure your hole isn't bigger than the base of your tip). Once your tip is loaded use a glass and flip the bag over the top.
This makes a super easy way to fill your bag with frosting without frosting your hands in the process, however sometimes that's not a bad thing...
I purchased these on my last trip to the store which will make it easier to change the tip from bag to bag, otherwise you have to fish it out or destroy your bag by pulling the tip out of the end, which can be super fun, especially when using black frosting...
So, once you have your colors loaded in your bags then you get to "color" in the picture. But you do it backwards, starting with the details first then the color. So on the Pokemon picture I started with my black outline. Then over the top of that I filled in the yellow for the body with a fairly thick layer 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Then I filled in the blue, and then the red. When I was done I could not see any of the black lines on the back it was a solid layer of yellow, blue, and red frosting. Then I put the whole thing in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
After I was sure the frosting was firm, I removed the tape from the wax paper so it was no longer attached to the glass, then positioned the image where I wanted it over the frosted blue base. I quickly flipped over the wax paper and carefully helped the beautiful frosting picture peel off the paper and into it's place on the cake! Voila! You are now the master cake decorator. Once the image is in place write in your words and decorate however else you would like to.
Not a bad turnout for a first try!
Check out the blog that brought provided the wonderful inspiration:
http://www.brasstacksandbasics.com/2011/08/super-fancy-cake-decorating-tutorial.html
