Happy Birthday to The Princess

I can't believe The Little Princess is two years old already! But then again, I can hardly believe I am in my late 20's either, (those who choose to believe this should not look at any pictures from my 25 year high school class reunion.)

so....

Anyway

A couple years ago, Diann and I took the Wilton cake decorating classes, and had a really fun time. So I appointed myself "Official Royal Cake Maker For The Princess." Of course, Diann is welcome to take that title any time she wants to, but she seems content to let me keep it for now.

Last year, I made a princess cake.




This year, I have been wondering what kind of cake to make.

Lately, she has had a fascination with snowmen. She hugs them, snuggles them and says they are cute. So I figured I'd attempt a snowman cake.

I decided to make it from scratch. There are three different favorite cakes among the people who will be eating it, so I made three different kinds.

The bottom layer was a carrot cake.

Carrot Cake

I used this recipe:
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In large bowl, combine oil, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs and beat well. Stir in half of the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.

Add carrots and pineapple and beat well. Then beat in remaining flour. Stir in 1/2 cup walnuts and mix well. Pour into 13x9" pan and spread evenly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes until dark golden brown and cake springs back when lightly touched in center.

Cool carrot cake on wire rack.

I baked it in a stainless steel mixing bowl and it made the base of the snowman.



The second layer was Banana Cake

Banana Cake
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1-1/2 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and spices. In a blender, combine bananas, vanilla, oil, milk. Blend well. Add liquid mixture into dry mixture. Combine completely. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on racks in pans for 5 minutes. Remove from pans to finish cooling.


I split the batter in half and baked each half in a smaller stainless mixing bowl, so I had two halves of the middle layer.

The top layer was chocolate. I used a recipe I found for salad Dressing cake. (I wish I had called my mom and got her recipe for salad dressing cake. Although it wasn't bad, it wasn't as good as my mom used to make.)

Salad Dressing Cake

2-cups Flour
2-teaspoons Baking Soda
1-cup Sugar
4-tablespoons Cocoa
1-cup warm water
1-cup Miracle Whip, Salad Dressing
1-teaspoon Vanilla Mix all ingredients together, beat until smooth. Spray a 13"x9" cake pan with Pam and dust with flour. Bake at 350° for 30-minutes.

I divided the batter into thirds. The first two thirds were baked in large deep soup bowls, They formed the head.



The other third I baked in the pineapple can from the carrot cake. I put it in a cake pan with 2" of water in it, then took the cake out of the can after 20 minutes. It was still soft on the bottom so it kind of drooped, giving me the effect I wanted. I then put it upside down on a cookie sheet and returned it to the oven until it finished cooking. This formed the hat.

For the hat brim, I melted Chocolate chips and spread them on saucer lined with waxed paper, leaving a thin spot in the middle. When it cooled, I trimmed the edges, and flipped it over.



For frosting, I used 1 part butter to 2 parts cream cheese. Creamed this together and added powdered sugar to taste. It works out to about a pound of powdered sugar to each pound of cream cheeese, but this can vary according to your personal preference. The more powdered sugar you add, the stiffer your frosting will be and the less likely to run and droop. But if you add too much it will be sickening sweet. Use your discretion.

For the hat, I wanted chocolate frosting, so I added a tablespoon of cocoa powder to about 1 1/2 cups of frosting and mixed it well.

This cake took about 1/2 lb of butter, 1 lb of cream cheese, and 1 lb of powdered sugar. I could have frosted it a little more carefully and used less, but I wanted it to look kind of rough, like a snowman should, so I wasn't dainty with my frosting knife.

Then it was time to assemble the cake. I took a 12" x 12" square of MDF board, drilled a 7/16" hole in the center. Then I put a wooden dowel in the hole as a spindle. I wrapped the dowel with saran wrap. I could have sanitized it with some bleach first, but saran wrap was easier. I poked a hole in the center of each layer with a wooden spoon and threaded them on the spindle.

So now it was time to assemble the cake.

I started with the base:


Then slathered that with frosting:



Next came the middle layers, I poked the hole, and trimmed them too fit against each other, then threaded them onto the spindle.








Another generous slathering of frosting and I was ready to add the head.



The two pieces from the soup bowl fit together nicely, with just a bit of trimming, and frosting covered the tears I made while trying to assemble it. I love that about frosting, it is very forgiving.




So, with the addition of the hat brim, the hat, and some chocolate frosting, I was ready to make the face.



I used licorice jelly beans for eyes, an orange spice gum drop for a nose and some Reese's Pieces for a mouth.



A few flourishes here and there, Some more jelly beans for buttons, some color around the brim of the hat, and I was ready to declare him a success.

It was a little less work than last year's princess cake, and isn't quite as elegant, but I think that she will like it.

It's definitely a snowman!



I am linking up to following blogs. Please take a moment to check them out!



Foodie Friday at "Designs by Gollum"



Round Robin at "Keeping up with the Schultz Family"



Creative Cats Friday at "Poppies at Play"



Finer Things Friday at "The Finer Things in Life"



Frugal Friday at "Life as Mom"

And I couldn't find a button, but I am also joining Thrifty Thursday at Coupon Teacher

And on Saturday, I am linking up at............



"Funky Junk Interiors" for Saturday Nite Special because I think that not only will Donna appreciate the fact that I used scrap wood, but I also used power tools to make the cake!

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