Cakes for Charity ... Barbie Cupcakes

Next on my list for Birthday Dreams was to do was a Barbie theme for sister of the boy I did the Mickey Mouse Cake for.  Now I was going to make a a barbie cake, you know the one that has a barbie in the cake.  BUT I'm sorry to say they kind of creep me out so I didn't make one.  So I went on the search to find out what I could make.  I came across an idea for Barbie Silhouette Cupcakes on Blow Out Party. I took this idea and ran with it.

What you Need:

Cupcakes (I made Chocolate see recipe below)

Frosting (I used my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting - click link)

Zebra Print Cupcake Wrappers (bought at Hobby Lobby)

Fondant (I used my Rolled Buttercream Fondant)

Barbie Cookie Cutter (found on Ebay)

Americolor Electric Pink Gel food color

AmeriColor Super Black 

Wilton Circle Cutter (Medium Size)

I made the chocolate cupcakes (see recipe below) and let them cool.  While they cooled I made a batch of my sturdy buttercream frosting and dyed it Hot Pink.  I then frosted the cooled cupcakes.  I broke my batch of fondant into 3 balls.  One large ball of Fondant was kept white, one I made black and one hot pink.

I rolled out my white fondant and took my circle cutter to make the base the silhouettes on. I let the circles dry out a little bit, to let them harden.  I then rolled out my pink and cut out 12 silhouettes with the barbie cookie cutter.  I then rolled out my black and cut out 12 silhouettes.  I attached the silhouettes with a little water to the circles.  

I let them sit out a little bit to harden also.  NOW this works perfectly when you're not reaching temps in the high 90's (which we were) so into the fridge they went until they were delivered.

Once your toppers are hard attach them to the frosted cupcakes

Chocolate Cake was requested so I made the Moist Chocolate Cake found on Foodess again.

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
2. In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
3. Pour batter evenly between 2 cupcake pans  and bake on middle rack of oven for about 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.

Here they are packaged up and ready to go:

You don't have to bake to help Birthday Dreams, please check them out.

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Cakes for Charity ... Mickey Mouse Cake

Another cake for Birthday Dreams done.  This is actually a cake I've done before so it was easy to do since I had it in my head how to do.  I had a little 2 year old boy at the shelter who requested a Mickey Mouse Cake, I went to the Mickey Mouse Cake I made for Caden last year.

What you Need:

Your favorite cake recipe (I made a chocolate cake as requested see recipe below)
2 6" Round baking pans
1 8 or 9" (I prefer 9) round baking pan (I just used 2 9" and cut out 2 circles out of one cake)
Frosting (I used my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting)
A big surface to put the cake on (I used a cake board)

Make your cake mix (see recipe below). Pour mix into greased pans and bake until done (I swear by Wilton's Cake Release). Stick a toothpick in to check it is done, as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, take a butter knife and run it around the edges of the cake to make sure it is separated from the pan. Let the cakes cool 15-20 minutes. 

While cake's cool I split my batch into 3 colors.  For the yellow I used a 1/4 cup then broke up the rest of the frosting into 2 batches.  One in Red and one in Black.  I used AmeriColor Super Black, Super Red and Lemon Yellow food gel (I pick mine up at Hobby Lobby but Amazon also sells them).

Then, remove them from the pan, evening the tops (which will then become the bottom, if needed). Place the cakes on your cake base (I used a cake board). Classic Mickey has 2 ears connected to the head (so you cut a moon off each small circle - see picture below).  The Tootles version you would leave the small circles with no cutting.  Once cake is cooled, I frost it.  I decided that I would do the top half (the ears and half the large circle) black and the bottom red.  I then put the cake back into the fridge to harden up the frosting.  I then took yellow frosting to make to ovals like buttons on the red and added a little black to look like button holds.  I also added red frosting gel with the #2 on each ear.  

For the Chocolate Cake I used a Moist Chocolate Cake found on Foodess.  I volunteered at the shelter the following week with my church and the mom I made the cake for her child came up to me to tell me how moist and yummy the cake was.  I was so tickled to hear this. I made another cake for her daughter and used the same cake recipe (Barbie post to come tomorrow).

For the Chocolate Cake Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
2. In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
3. Pour batter evenly between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.
4. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake. Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or frosting.

You don't have to bake to help Birthday Dreams, please check them out.

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Cakes for Charity ... Princess Castle Cake

Next on my list for Birthday Dreams was a Princess themed party.  I found a Princess Castle Cake on Single Mormon Mommy. This was a pretty simple cake to make, I did put a little more frosting then I normally would when I put fondant on.  The little girl requested extra frosting. 

For this cake, you’ll need

- A cake mix (ALEXIS NOTE: I made my own - see recipe below)
- A can of frosting (ALEXIS NOTE: I made my own - see recipe below)
- 4 Ice-cream cups
- 4 Ice cream cones
- Pink icing that comes in a tube (ALEXIS NOTE: I Made Pink Fondant)
- Cotton Candy for the clouds (ALEXIS NOTE: I skipped this part)
- Pillow mints for the castle “stones” (ALEXIS NOTE: I skipped this part)
- Toothpicks
- Paper or pink fondant (ALEXIS NOTE: I made Brown Fondant window and door. For Flags I used Birthday ones I picked up at Hobby Lobby)

To make it easy to get the cakes out whole, you might want to line the bottoms of the pan with cut-to-size parchment paper. We actually used regular paper and just greased it. (ALEXIS NOTE: I use Cake Release it works every time!)

After giving both cakes a good crumb coating (How? Microwave about 1/3 cup frosting for 5 seconds & spread a thin layer over everything to keep crumbs at bay) put the square cake on the serving tray and the loaf cake on top, right across the center. If your loaf was a little too long for the square you can safely take a slice right out of the middle, push the ends together, and hold them in place with toothpicks. (ALEXIS NOTE: I used too much frosting due to the request for extra frosting.)

Then cut out out windows door and flags. Be sure the flags are cut on the fold so they’ll wrap around a toothpick. You can “glue” them onto the top of a toothpick using a little icing. To mount the flags, you’ll need to slice the ends off 5 sugar cones, making a hole just wide enough to hold a toothpick. (ALEXIS NOTE: I made some brown fondant and cut the windows and door.  I also made a few pink fondant balls to add a little something special to the cake.)

Now you just need to mount your flags and add your windows and doors. Add pillow-mint key stones and whatever other decorations you like. (ALEXIS NOTE: I skipped the mints.)

ALEXIS NOTES: I used my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting and Rolled Buttercream Fondant.  To get the right Pink I used Americolor Electric Pink Gel food color.

For the Cake I used The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe found on Add a Pinch (See the recipe and pictures below)

Ingredients

• Chocolate Cake
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.
2. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
3. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
4. Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

You don't have to bake to help Birthday Dreams, please check them out.

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.