Funfetti Ice Cream Cake: It's your Birthday

This year, I went all out on our birthday tradition of making cakes for one another. Nick loves funfetti cake ( who doesn't?) and after 8 years of making funfetti cakes, I wanted to switch it up a little. I kept his old reliable, and made a 9 inch round of funfetti cake, but also used the 9 inch round cake pan to make a layer of ice cream.

To make an icecream layer for a cake, just line your pan with saran wrap and fill with semi-softened icecream ( I acheived this by nuking it for 20 second intervals). Transfer to the freezer over night. Once frozen, fill the bottom of your sink with hot water about 1 inch high. Submerge the bottom of your cake pan in the warm water. Flip the pan over and the icecream round should pop out. Peel Saran wrap off and you have your layer!

Place leveled cake on top of ice cream round. Trim any overhangs. (I didn't take a photo of this step, it's hard to hold a knife and camera simutaneously), I used semi-softened vanilla bean icecream to "frost" the top of the cake, instead of frosting because I had another wild hair to try something else new on this cake. One of my BFF's, Liz, over at A crafty bee, did a tutorial on using bubble wrap to make molded chocolate. After seeing what she did with her cheesecake, I was just waiting for Nick's birthday to come so I could try it on a cake! So, I salvaged some bubble wrap from a Christmas gift. Cut it to the height of the two layer cake. Melted semi-sweet chocolate ( I used the microwave but suggest a double broiler instead) , sprayed the wrap with PAM spray, then spread an even layer of chocolate over the bubble wrap. I let it set up for a minute before transferring. I wrapped each half of the cake with a strip of chocolate covered bubble wrap. It was a bit tricky manipulating the flexible wrap without smearing chocolate all over, but I somehow managed to get the placement right.

Then I transferred the cake back to the freezer for 15 minutes to let the chocolate set up. After 15 minutes, I took it out of the freezer, and pulled the bubble wrap off. Voila! Bubble Wrap molded ice cream cake, no frosting necessary!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE! MAY YOUR 33rd YEAR BE THE BEST ONE YET!

Wedding Cake: Final product

After a nightmarish baking day on saturday which lasted from 9:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. at my house and continued on well until midnight at my sister's house to complete the 12 inch layer.

We did it, we actually pulled it off with time to spare. Sunday was a complete 180 from our experience on Saturday...Thank goodness!

Set up was a breeze, the wedding was gorgeous, and I am thrilled that my sister and I kept our cool when the kitchen got hot and walked away from this experience happy and still loving each other.

More pics later, but this girl is T-i-r-e-d!

Wedding Cake: Day 1

My sister came over at 9:30 a.m. to get started baking a red velvet and cream cheese 3 tier wedding cake with me this morning. We have been anticipating this challenge for months, and today was THE day to get it done. We started off laughing, joking, picture taking...and then...It was one disaster after another. After spending 4 hours on the 12 inch round, we trashed it..There was no saving it, as the cream cheese in the frosting caused the cake layers to slide apart which would have caused each tier to lean like the tower of Pisa.

We ended up trashing 2 cakes today..and throwing the cream cheese frosting idea out the window once my sister realized that the heat and cream cheese do not mix. So, unfortunately, to save the cake and make one that will look and taste nice tomorrow, we made buttercream frosting to frost the remaining cakes.

Today was the worst day of baking, ever.

Stay tuned for round TWO tomorrow..Everything will come together and it's going to be gorgeous!