Birthday Cakes!

Late spring and early summer are the busiest birthday times for us.  All four of us have our birthdays in this time and then we throw in a few extended family members and friends into the mix.  It makes for a lot of cake eating so we try to make everyone different.  Here are the ones that I have made so far this year.

Nick's Birthday

For Nick's birthday he wanted a Star Wars cake.  So I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and put little Star Wars Lego action figures on top.  He and his friends were quite amazed that the Star Wars plane was "flying" over the cake.  (In reality is was sitting on some straws that were cut 1/2 inch higher than the cake.)

Rob's Birthday

It was too hot to bake so he got the ice cream pie.  I posted how I made it last week.

Jake's Birthday

Jake wanted a plain vanilla cake with caramel icing.  It looked a little boring so I made some buttercream icing and added a few shakes of tumeric to change the colour to a beautiful yellow colour and wrote Happy Birthday on it.  I love how nice the yellow turned out and you can not taste the little amount of tumeric that was used.

Caramel Icing

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup milk

2 to 2-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

For icing, in a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Do not stir. Cook for 3-6 minutes or until bubbles form in center of mixture and syrup turns amber. Remove from the heat; transfer to a small bowl. Cool to room temperature. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated my Dad's birthday at our house with the whole family this year.  I made him a Black Forest Cherry cake.  (This is the recipe that I used - Black Forest Cherry Cake)  I have to say it was one of the best tasting cakes I have made.  I will definately make this one again!