Wednesday, June 20, 2007

A Castle Cake

Castle CakeAnother birthday, another cake, but this one came out well, I was pleased with myself. Before I started I had visions of tilting turrets and crumblings crenellations (remember that word?) but the trick is bamboo skewers.

I used a regular triple-layer yellow cake recipe, ran bamboo skewers down through the layers, impaled Hostess Ho Hos lengthwise on the exposed skewer and topped each Ho Ho off with a sugar ice cream cone. It held securely even against the gale-force winds of a five year-old blowing out her candles. Holy Ho Hos Batman!

The drawbridge is a graham cracker, the doorway and flags are cut from fruit leather. There are graham cracker sticks as windows, M&Ms around the bottom, Good 'n Plenty's around the top and Dots on the upper edge.

If you're going to have a castle cake for a little girl, better make it pink.

And here's another trick to decorating oddly-shaped children's cakes: freeze the pieces before frosting them. They'll hold their shape better and shed fewer crumbs.

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60 comments:

Hanley Family said...

That is a great cake!

Valtool said...

Very cool cake, Publix (regional grocery) does stuff like this now, but the homemade stuff is so much nicer.

Anonymous said...

wow, what a beautiful cake!! Yum

Thea @ It's Me Vs. Me said...

Oh my goodness, I bow to your cake decorating prowess. Very nicely done!

ICJ said...

Very artistic and YUMMY cake!

Happy WW! :-)

Isabelle aka Tricotine
http://tricotine.typepad.com

Crazy Working Mom said...

Wow, that looks like heaven...but HELL to make. Great photo.

Qtpies7 said...

Skewers are a cake decorator's friend! I use them all the time in my 3-D cakes! Skewers and dowel rods.

my4kids said...

OMG that is soo cute!! I love it and McKenzie is standing behind me ohhing and ahhing, that and asking me to make one for her now too....

Pearls of Wisdom said...

Great job. The cake is beautiful . Thanks for sharing and Happy WW.

Smiles,

Angel Mama():)

Glenna said...

Really cute cake. Love the Twinkies on skewers idea.

Joyful Days said...

Awesome. I am going to show my sister who is the cake maker in the family. She's done some great ones--but never a castle. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Well done!

Anonymous said...

I've always wanted to make my own cute cake like that. It sounds so easy but I'm sure mine wouldn't turn out as nice!

Anonymous said...

you are very talented!

Robin said...

Gorgeous! I'll definitely have to remember the skewers trick.

Gattina said...

Looks very original with the conses on top !

Mrs. O said...

I love the freezing tip, I'll be sure to try it.

Another tip I've heard is to frost a primer layer of frosting.

Liza on Maui said...

Beautiful cake!!! I wish I can make one like that.

Irene said...

I am SO impressed! My daughters wanted a cake like this for their birthdays, that they had seen in aphoto shot, but didn't know it was doable.
Congratulations to mommy, and best birthday wishes to the birthday girl!

Lavender said...

Bravo! Thats really great - I bet that gets a huge smile from the birthday baby! Happy WW, I played too.

Jeana said...

Beautiful! How did you get the drawbridge to stay put?

Jenn in Holland said...

Another fabulous cake! It's a great idea. (yet another, which I shall be stealing)
:)

Becca said...

my husband said: "a kid would love to have that cake." I say: I would love to have that cake! It's absolutely beautiful, Michelle. Great job.

Amy W said...

Love that cake, just might have to make that one...

Anonymous said...

Great cake! I made a castle cake for my daughter's princess party seven years ago. Didn't have Ho-Hos on hand so I used small cans of V-8 juice. Pre-freezing is a good idea.

Anonymous said...

Very nicely done. Congrats. I've made several castle cakes myself, mostly for the twins. (Works for boys and girls too, as long as you DON'T use pink icing) I made two cakes--a bundt, and 2 loaf pans. (also this way each kid gets to choose a flavor) I cut the bundt in half and laid each in a rainbow shape, connected them with the loaf cakes, and then frosted the whole thing. If you can get choc cones for towers, that works nicely too. I used choc bars for windows since I can't get graham crackers, and either Easter grass or coloured sugar for the platter.

Daisy said...

Gorgeous! I love the ice cream cone turrets.

Jenny said...

Loved it: Holy Hos Hos Batman!! Wish I were witty enough to have a comeback!!
Oh, it is a great looking pink castle cake ;)

Marie said...

I use skewers even for a regular layer cake. It makes it so much more secure to frost.

J said...

Cutest cake ever. ;) Can I eat a hoho?

TeaMouse said...

I love that - what a great idea. My kids are older but my sister usually has me do her kids cakes and I can definitley use this idea for her daughter's 5th birthday. So far I've done a couple of barbie cakes and a dump truck cake for my nephew.

Love the freezing tip! I'm doing a cake for my son's grad party and I need to cut the cake in order to put custard inside. Do you think freezing would help that? Last time I did it, I had to cut the top piece in half so it wouldn't break before I could put the custard in between the layers.

Rayne said...

Very cool cake. I could never do something like that. Good job!

Christie said...

Where were you last year when I attempted one of these on my own? Ugh. It did not turn out as darling as yours. Will try that one next year for sure. As I'm sure the princess will no doubt beg for another castle cake. Because she is just mean that way.

Lori said...

That looks awesome!! I want some:)

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

It's perfect. Thanks for the tips (ho hos and bamboo sticks).

Sherry said...

I wish someone would make me a cake like that!

Myth said...

Love it! - bet she was pleased :D

Megan@SortaCrunchy said...

Holy MOSES!! Now THAT is a cake! Nice work, woman. Nice work!

OhTheJoys said...

Gah! You and your beautiful cakes! You set the cake bar so HIGH, friend.

Blog said...

OMIGOSH. YOU MADE THAT!? And, you ate it? Tell me the icing tastes like strawberries? Yum.... Or that it tastes like those really sugary icings...? mmmmm.... Salivating.... And, it's GORJ!!! Look at you! I'm WAY impressed.

Marie N. said...

WOW! I had to click away quickly before my kids saw that :-)

Angel The Alien said...

Wow, that is a FANCY cake! it will take quicker to eat it than it took to make it!

Sheila said...

Cute, cute, cute!

I wish I had a little girl. :)

Linda said...

how adorable! so much work must have gone into that masterpiece! looks too beautiful to eat!

Anonymous said...

Oh, you with the cakes. It's good. Very good.

Sandy said...

I SO needed this post back in January!

shukr said...

wow, my daughters would love this!

shukr said...

wow, my daughters would love this!

shukr said...

ooops!

Alexandra said...

Beautiful!

kddub said...

that is adorable

Kaainaath said...

i feel like living there! ;)

Unknown said...

AWESOME!!

Jen said...

You are one good mommy! My Lego cake for A's birthday was a mess; shoulda stuck it in the freezer first. How hard is it to mess up a rectangular cake? Pretty darned easy!

Kerri said...

That cake is wonderful! I always struggle with getting it to all stick together and I love your idea to freeze it first. Thanks so much!

On another note...I found your post and thought I’d reach out to say hello and ask if you’d like to receive a free Maya & Miguel DVD. If you’d like to receive the DVD just email me at Kerri at boldmouth.com with your address and I’ll have it shipped it out to you.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Maya & Miguel, a show on PBS in the afternoons -- http://pbskidsgo.org/mayaandmiguel -- that emphasizes cultural diversity and language learning but I’m reaching out to talk to parents about the program as part of a marketing project I’m working on with Scholastic.

If you do choose to blog about Maya & Miguel show or episodes on the DVD, please make it clear how you received the information. Our goal is to be open and honest with everyone we reach.

Kerri Roberts, BoldMouth

PunditMom said...

Oh, I wish PunditGirl was still in that phase ... that's a GREAT cake!

Magpie said...

Nice job!

Anonymous said...

Found your cake one a Google search of "castle cake"; of all the cake ideas that came up, yours struck me as the most original/doable/interesting-
looking/fun! Thanks for the frozen cake and skewers ideas - I'll definitely remember them! Love the creative use of HoHos

Anonymous said...

pretty! yum yum!

PaisleyJade said...

Wow - very cute - I am really impressed!