Show & Tell Friday -- Birthday Cakes

**Update -- In the comments someone wondered if I would share my modified recipes so if you are interested in one or all email me and let me know and I will email them to you. The four I make are: carrot, pumpkin, applesauce, and of course chocolate. Two are with cream cheese frosting and the others are with a cooked whipped frosting which isn't as sweet as buttercream.**

I really enjoy baking, especially taking a recipe and modifying it to make a more healthy version with whole wheat flour, alternative sweeteners, etc. In the beginning of this process I ended up with dry cakes or really flat cakes but over the years have perfected four cakes that I regularly make for birthdays that are very moist and tasty.

In addition to that I enjoy decorating birthday cakes. I grew up with birthday cakes that my Mom beautifully decorated each year and thankfully she has passed on her talent to my sister and me. I have carried on that tradition but only wish that I wouldn't have ever given the boys a choice of which cake to make. They typically find one on one of my favorite websites on my sidebar called "Coolest Birthday Cakes". It also is a little more difficult in that we have two birthday parties where I need to make more than one cake and that slightly decreases the fun of it. For the three boys birthday two weeks ago my sister was a sweetheart and offered to decorate a cake for Tank as I had been very tempted to buy one. It turned out beautifully and Tank loved it!

I am going to share the cakes from the past few months.

Our fall birthdays from the beginning of November. I was going to make Baby Boy a #1 cake but time got away from me so I just quick decorated the pumpkin sheet cake. (Not as if he cared). Missy Blue had a "dolly" cake in her favorite color.

I used an old Storybook Doll pan that my Mom used for one of my cakes.

Pete and Re-Pete selected jeep cakes. I wanted to make one large one but they couldn't agree on a color or flavor so I made two smaller cakes (one carrot and one pumpkin). I have found piping the icing on works great as it hides imperfections, although it also hurts your hand after awhile. My Mom helped me finish the orange one as I always run out of time. :( The black frosting was a pain and I found that it is better to start with chocolate frosting but I made cream cheese so ended up adding a bit of cocoa to make it black rather than the dark purple it was. It sure stains teeth though!

Here is the Thomas the Train cake my sister decorated for me. (Thanks so much Sara!) She decided to make it more exciting than the picture he had seen and so she made the tunnel out of rice krispy treats covered with frosting.


If you would like to see more Show & Tells visit Mary at Raising 4 Godly Men. Today she shares a spelling program that I have also found to be of great help.