To Summer & Beyond (Easy)

This is a set of seven small (mini) cakes that I did for all the kids that had summer birthdays in my son's class.

Each child got his/her own personalized cake, which they loved! My "theme" was space, with a rocket traveling past all the birthday planets towards the "Jr. High Galaxy" at the other end of the board. Most of the cakes were a made in a 6" pan - Wilton round or small paisley, with the square chessboard cake, Spain, rocket and top of the acropolis cut from sections of a rectangular sheet cake. (For Spain, I printed a picture of Spain, then traced it with a knife to get the shape.) I decorated the cake with tinted buttercream and fondant decorations. See the notes by each picture for more detail. Overall, the cakes took about six hours to finish, but the kids were so excited! Priceless!

Rocket
This was just for fun.  I cut the shape from a larger rectangle of cake, then tapered the sides.  Frosted with large white buttercream stars.  The wings, window and flames are fondant.












Summer in Spain
I cut the shape of Spain out of a rectangular cake and then iced with yellow and red buttercream to mimic the Spanish flag.  I printed a copy of Picasso's Guernica and laminated it using laminating sheets from Office Max.  The little girl is made from fondant. (Note - I fixed the sign to say "feliz cumpleanos" before I served it!)










Camping Trip
The tent is made from graham crackers covered in fondant.  The tree is a sugar cone covered with kelly green stars (using the Wilton #16 tip).  The boy are bear are fondant.  This cake uses the small paisley pan.







A Summer of Baseball
This cake was made with 1/2 of the Wilton sports ball pan.













Chess Camp
Square cake frosted with white buttercream then I overlaid white and black fondant squares (rolled very thin and cut with a ruler) to form the chess board.  I used real chess pieces on top.

Beach Vacation
Round cake frosted with ivory-tinted buttercream.  The sand castle elements are made of fondant - there is a bucket on the other side that you can't see.  I dusted the whole cake with a mix of brown and light sugar to make the sand-effect.  There is a pressed fondant crab on the side.






Summer in Athens (the Acropolis)
This cake was a bit more complex - it's a 6" round cake topped with a rectangle of cake cut from a large cake (that also gave me Spain, the rocket and chessboard).  Covered with white buttercream.  The columns on the Parthenon are white chocolate dipped pretzels.   The top is fondant, with little fondant figures. 

Honey Bee Hive Cake - Medium

I saw a very cute bee hive cake pan, but didn't buy it - decided I could improvise!  You can too!  This cake is pretty easy.   I made it for a class party celebrating all the kids with summer birthdays.  Each child had his/her own bee.

In advance, make the bees using fondant.  Make the bodies and wings separately, when they are set, glue the wings to the bodies using black icing from a tube.  My bees were quite big, so they took several days to dry. 

1  Bake 4 layers - 1 each in a 10", 8", and 6" round pan.  Back a tiny layer in a 4" pan if you have one or else in a small Pyrex bowl, ramekin or cupcake pan (in a pinch).  These will be stacked as shown, to make the hive.

2.  When cool, level the bottom 3 layers, and stack, with yellow-tinted buttercream icing between the layers.  Add the top layer.  Cover the entire cake with open stars, using a Wilton  No. 16 or 18 tip.  If you have a larger tip, use that - I believe I used a Wilton 32.)  Note - put several layers of stars at the "steps" so it looks smooth, not stair-like.)

3.  Tint fondant yellow and roll several long snakes.  Wrap these around the cake layers as shown above, to emphasize the hive shape.   Add a small black fondant door.

4.  To finish cake, position bees using clear skewers.  (See note in the Death Star post about clear skewers.)  I also drizzled some gold piping gel around the top, as it looked just like honey.

Sailboat Cakes - Very Easy

1. Bake box cake mix in 8” or 9” square pans.  Each mix does 2 layers; each layer is a boat. For the cake picture, I did 2 mixes, using 3 9" square layers for the sailboats and 1 6” round for the sun.) 

2. Cut and assemble on your cake board as shown below.  (Pattern by Betty Crocker).   

 www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/sailboat-cake/1ab59ca2-376b-4fc7-bcad-2f56d9917dc3      

 

(Note: the pattern calls for a 9x13 cake, but I prefer to use the square pans and make 2 boats.  Cut the square cakes just as shown here.) 

3. Frost with Buttercream tinted as you like.

4. Decorate with licorice for the mast, life savers, and other candies, or use Wilton icing tubes with round tip to hand-draw patterns on the sails. 

Tip:  this is a good design for when you want different flavors of cake or if you need to do a special recipe.  One of the boats is made without eggs, as we had an egg-allergy to accommodate.